Joshua 1-12

Living Bible

1 After the death of Moses, the Lord’s disciple, God spoke to Moses’ assistant, whose name was Joshua (the son of Nun), and said to him,

² “Now that my disciple is dead, you are the new leader of Israel.^[a] Lead my people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. ³ I say to you what I said to Moses: ‘Wherever you go will be part of the land of Israel— ⁴ all the way from the Negeb Desert in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Euphrates River in the east, including all the land of the Hittites.’ ⁵ No one will be able to oppose you as long as you live, for I will be with you just as I was with Moses; I will not abandon you or fail to help you.

⁶ “Be strong and brave, for you will be a successful leader of my people; and they shall conquer all the land I promised to their ancestors. ⁷ You need only to be strong and courageous and to obey to the letter every law Moses gave you, for if you are careful to obey every one of them, you will be successful in everything you do. ⁸ Constantly remind the people about these laws, and you yourself must think about them every day and every night so that you will be sure to obey all of them. For only then will you succeed. ⁹ Yes, be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! For remember, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

^10-11 Then Joshua issued instructions to the leaders of Israel to tell the people to get ready to cross the Jordan River. “In three days we will go across and conquer and live in the land which God has given us!” he told them.

^12-13 Then he summoned the leaders of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh and reminded them of their agreement with Moses: “The Lord your God has given you a homeland here on the east side of the Jordan River,” Moses had told them, ¹⁴ “so your wives and children and cattle may remain here, but your troops, fully armed, must lead the other tribes across the Jordan River to help them conquer their territory on the other side; ¹⁵ stay with them until they complete the conquest. Only then may you settle down here on the east side of the Jordan.”

¹⁶ To this they fully agreed and pledged themselves to obey Joshua as their commander-in-chief.

^17-18 “We will obey you just as we obeyed Moses,” they assured him, “and may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. If anyone, no matter who, rebels against your commands, he shall die. So lead on with courage and strength!”

2 Then Joshua sent two spies from the Israeli camp at Acacia to cross the river and check out the situation on the other side, especially at Jericho. They arrived at an inn operated by a woman named Rahab, who was a prostitute. They were planning to spend the night there, ² but someone informed the king of Jericho that two Israelis who were suspected of being spies had arrived in the city that evening. ³ He dispatched a police squadron to Rahab’s home, demanding that she surrender them.

“They are spies,” he explained. “They have been sent by the Israeli leaders to discover the best way to attack us.”

⁴ But she had hidden them, so she told the officer in charge, “The men were here earlier, but I didn’t know they were spies. ⁵ They left the city at dusk as the city gates were about to close, and I don’t know where they went. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them!”

⁶ But actually she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them beneath piles of flax that were drying there. ⁷ So the constable and his men went all the way to the Jordan River looking for them; meanwhile, the city gates were kept shut. ⁸ Rahab went up to talk to the men before they retired for the night.

⁹ “I know perfectly well that your God is going to give my country to you,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you; everyone is terrified if the word Israel is even mentioned. ¹⁰ For we have heard how the Lord made a path through the Red Sea for you when you left Egypt! And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan, and how you ruined their land and completely destroyed their people. ¹¹ No wonder we are afraid of you! No one has any fight left in him after hearing things like that, for your God is the supreme God of heaven, not just an ordinary god. ^12-13 Now I beg for this one thing: Swear to me by the sacred name of your God that when Jericho is conquered you will let me live, along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families. This is only fair after the way I have helped you.”

¹⁴ The men agreed. “If you won’t betray us, we’ll see to it that you and your family aren’t harmed,” they promised. ¹⁵ “We’ll defend you with our lives.” Then, since her house was on top of the city wall, she let them down by a rope from a window.

¹⁶ “Escape to the mountains,” she told them. “Hide there for three days until the men who are searching for you have returned; then go on your way.”

^17-18 But before they left, the men had said to her, “We cannot be responsible for what happens to you unless this rope is hanging from this window and unless all your relatives—your father, mother, brothers, and anyone else—are here inside the house. ¹⁹ If they go out into the street, we assume no responsibility whatsoever; but we swear that no one inside this house will be killed or injured. ²⁰ However, if you betray us, then this oath will no longer bind us in any way.”

²¹ “I accept your terms,” she replied. And she left the scarlet rope hanging from the window.

²² The spies went up into the mountains and stayed there three days, until the men who were chasing them had returned to the city after searching everywhere along the road without success. ²³ Then the two spies came down from the mountains and crossed the river and reported to Joshua all that had happened to them.

²⁴ “The Lord will certainly give us the entire land,” they said, “for all the people over there are scared to death of us.”

3 Early the next morning Joshua and all the people of Israel left Acacia and arrived that evening at the banks of the Jordan River, where they camped for a few days before crossing.

^2-4 On the third day officers went through the camp giving these instructions: “When you see the priests carrying the Ark of God,^[b] follow them. You have never before been where we are going now, so they will guide you. However, stay about a half mile behind, with a clear space between you and the Ark; be sure that you don’t get any closer.”

⁵ Then Joshua told the people to purify themselves. “For tomorrow,” he said, “the Lord will do a great miracle.”

⁶ In the morning Joshua ordered the priests, “Take up the Ark and lead us across the river!” And so they started out.

⁷ “Today,” the Lord told Joshua, “I will give you great honor, so that all Israel will know that I am with you just as I was with Moses. ⁸ Instruct the priests who are carrying the Ark to stop at the edge of the river.”

⁹ Then Joshua summoned all the people and told them, “Come and listen to what the Lord your God has said. ¹⁰ Today you are going to know for sure that the living God is among you and that he will, without fail, drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites—all the people who now live in the land you will soon occupy. ¹¹ Think of it! The Ark of God, who is Lord of the whole earth, will lead you across the river!

¹² “Now select twelve men, one from each tribe, for a special task.^{[c] 13-14} When the priests who are carrying the Ark touch the water with their feet, the river will stop flowing as though held back by a dam, and will pile up as though against an invisible wall!” Now it was the harvest season and the Jordan was overflowing all its banks; but as the people set out to cross the river and as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, ^15-16 suddenly, far up the river at the city of Adam, near Zarethan, the water began piling up as though against a dam! And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was empty. Then all the people crossed at a spot where the river was close to the city of Jericho, ¹⁷ and the priests who were carrying the Ark stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan and waited as all the people passed by.

4 When all the people were safely across, the Lord said to Joshua, ^2-3 “Tell the twelve men chosen for a special task, one from each tribe, each to take a stone from where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan, and to carry them out and pile them up as a monument at the place where you camp tonight.”

⁴ So Joshua summoned the twelve men ⁵ and told them, “Go out into the middle of the Jordan where the Ark is. Each of you is to carry out a stone on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes. ⁶ We will use them to build a monument so that in the future, when your children ask, ‘What is this monument for?’ ⁷ you can tell them, ‘It is to remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of God went across!’ The monument will be a permanent reminder to the people of Israel of this amazing miracle.”

⁸ So the men did as Joshua told them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan River—one for each tribe, just as the Lord had commanded Joshua. They carried them to the place where they were camped for the night and constructed a monument there. ⁹ Joshua also built another monument of twelve stones in the middle of the river, at the place where the priests were standing; and it is there to this day. ¹⁰ The priests who were carrying the Ark stood in the middle of the river until all these instructions of the Lord, which had been given to Joshua by Moses, had been carried out. Meanwhile, the people had hurried across the riverbed, ¹¹ and when everyone was over, the people watched the priests carry the Ark up out of the riverbed.

^12-13 The troops of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh—fully armed as Moses had instructed, and forty thousand strong—led the other tribes of the Lord’s army across to the plains of Jericho.

¹⁴ It was a tremendous day for Joshua! The Lord made him great in the eyes of all the people of Israel, and they revered him as much as they had Moses and respected him deeply all the rest of his life. ^15-16 For it was Joshua who, at the Lord’s command, issued the orders to the priests carrying the Ark.

“Come up from the riverbed,” the Lord now told him to command them.

¹⁷ So Joshua issued the order. ¹⁸ And as soon as the priests came out, the water poured down again as usual and overflowed the banks of the river as before! ¹⁹ This miracle occurred on the 25th of March.^[d] That day the entire nation crossed the Jordan River and camped in Gilgal at the eastern edge of the city of Jericho; ²⁰ and there the twelve stones from the Jordan were piled up as a monument.

²¹ Then Joshua explained again the purpose of the stones: “In the future,” he said, “when your children ask you why these stones are here and what they mean, ²² you are to tell them that these stones are a reminder of this amazing miracle—that the nation of Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground! ²³ Tell them how the Lord our God dried up the river right before our eyes and then kept it dry until we were all across! It is the same thing the Lord did forty years ago^[e] at the Red Sea! ²⁴ He did this so that all the nations of the earth will realize that Jehovah is the mighty God, and so that all of you will worship him forever.”

5 When the nations west of the Jordan River—the Amorites and Canaanites who lived along the Mediterranean coast—heard that the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, their courage melted away completely and they were paralyzed with fear.

^2-3 The Lord then told Joshua to set aside a day to circumcise the entire male population of Israel. (It was the second time in Israel’s history that this was done.) The Lord instructed them to manufacture flint knives for this purpose. The place where the circumcision rite took place was named “The Hill of the Foreskins.” ^4-5 The reason for this second circumcision ceremony was that although when Israel left Egypt all of the men who had been old enough to bear arms had been circumcised, that entire generation had died during the years in the wilderness, and none of the boys born since that time had been circumcised. ⁶ For the nation of Israel had traveled back and forth across the wilderness for forty years until all the men who had been old enough to bear arms when they left Egypt were dead; they had not obeyed the Lord, and he vowed that he wouldn’t let them enter the land he had promised to Israel—a land that “flowed with milk and honey.” ⁷ So now Joshua circumcised their children—the men who had grown up to take their fathers’ places.

^8-9 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have ended your shame of not being circumcised.”^[f] So the place where this was done was called Gilgal (meaning, “to end”), and is still called that today. After the ceremony the entire nation rested in camp until the raw flesh of their wounds had been healed.

¹⁰ While they were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover during the evening of April first.^{[g] 11-12} The next day they began to eat from the gardens and grain fields which they invaded, and they made unleavened bread. The following day no manna fell, and it was never seen again! So from that time on they lived on the crops of Canaan.

¹³ As Joshua was sizing up the city of Jericho, a man appeared nearby with a drawn sword. Joshua strode over to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”

¹⁴ “I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Lord’s army,” he replied.

Joshua fell to the ground before him and worshiped him and said, “Give me your commands.”

¹⁵ “Take off your shoes,” the Commander told him, “for this is holy ground.” And Joshua did.

6 The gates of Jericho were kept tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelis; no one was allowed to go in or out.

² But the Lord said to Joshua, “Jericho and its king and all its mighty warriors are already defeated, for I have given them to you! ^3-4 Your entire army is to walk around the city once a day for six days, followed by seven priests walking ahead of the Ark, each carrying a trumpet made from a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to walk around the city seven times, with the priests blowing their trumpets. ⁵ Then, when they give one long, loud blast, all the people are to give a mighty shout, and the walls of the city will fall down; then move in upon the city from every direction.”

^6-9 So Joshua summoned the priests and gave them their instructions: the armed men would lead the procession, followed by seven priests blowing continually on their trumpets. Behind them would come the priests carrying the Ark, followed by a rear guard.

¹⁰ “Let there be complete silence except for the trumpets,” Joshua commanded. “Not a single word from any of you until I tell you to shout; then shout!”

¹¹ The Ark was carried around the city once that day, after which everyone returned to the camp again and spent the night there. ^12-14 At dawn the next morning they went around again and returned again to the camp. They followed this pattern for six days.

¹⁵ At dawn of the seventh day they started out again, but this time they went around the city not once, but seven times. ¹⁶ The seventh time, as the priests blew a long, loud trumpet blast, Joshua yelled to the people, “Shout! The Lord has given us the city!”

¹⁷ (He had told them previously, “Kill everyone except Rahab the prostitute and anyone in her house, for she protected our spies. ¹⁸ Don’t take any loot, for everything is to be destroyed. If it isn’t, disaster will fall upon the entire nation of Israel. ¹⁹ But all the silver and gold and the utensils of bronze and iron will be dedicated to the Lord and must be brought into his treasury.”)

²⁰ So when the people heard the trumpet blast, they shouted as loud as they could. And suddenly the walls of Jericho crumbled and fell before them, and the people of Israel poured into the city from every side and captured it! ²¹ They destroyed everything in it—men and women, young and old; oxen; sheep; donkeys—everything.

²² Meanwhile Joshua had said to the two spies, “Keep your promise. Go and rescue the prostitute and everyone with her.”

²³ The young men found her and rescued her, along with her father, mother, brothers, and other relatives who were with her. Arrangements were made for them to live outside the camp of Israel. ²⁴ Then the Israelis burned the city and everything in it except that the silver and gold and the bronze and iron utensils were kept for the Lord’s treasury. ²⁵ Thus Joshua saved Rahab the prostitute and her relatives who were with her in the house, and they still live among the Israelites because she hid the spies sent to Jericho by Joshua.

²⁶ Then Joshua declared a terrible curse upon anyone who might rebuild Jericho, warning that when the foundation was laid, the builder’s oldest son would die, and when the gates were set up, his youngest son would die.^[h]

²⁷ So the Lord was with Joshua, and his name became famous everywhere.

7 But there was sin among the Israelis. God’s command to destroy everything except that which was reserved for the Lord’s treasury was disobeyed. For Achan (the son of Carmi, grandson of Zabdi, and great-grandson of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah) took some loot for himself, and the Lord was very angry with the entire nation of Israel because of this.

² Soon after Jericho’s defeat, Joshua sent some of his men to spy on the city of Ai, east of Bethel.

³ Upon their return they told Joshua, “It’s a small city and it won’t take more than two or three thousand of us to destroy it; there’s no point in all of us going there.”

⁴ So approximately three thousand soldiers were sent—and they were soundly defeated. ⁵ About thirty-six of the Israelis were killed during the attack, and many others died while being chased by the men of Ai as far as the quarries. The Israeli army was paralyzed with fear at this turn of events. ⁶ Joshua and the elders of Israel tore their clothing and lay prostrate before the Ark of the Lord until evening, with dust on their heads.

⁷ Joshua cried out to the Lord, “O Jehovah, why have you brought us over the Jordan River if you are going to let the Amorites kill us? Why weren’t we content with what we had? Why didn’t we stay on the other side? ⁸ O Lord, what am I to do now that Israel has fled from her enemies! ⁹ For when the Canaanites and the other nearby nations hear about it, they will surround us and attack us and wipe us out. And then what will happen to the honor of your great name?”

^10-11 But the Lord said to Joshua, “Get up off your face! Israel has sinned and disobeyed my commandment and has taken loot when I said it was not to be taken; and they have not only taken it, they have lied about it and have hidden it among their belongings. ¹² That is why the people of Israel are being defeated. That is why your men are running from their enemies—for they are cursed.^[i] I will not stay with you any longer unless you completely rid yourselves of this sin.

¹³ “Get up! Tell the people, ‘Each of you must undergo purification rites in preparation for tomorrow, for the Lord your God of Israel says that someone has stolen from him, and you cannot defeat your enemies until you deal with this sin. ¹⁴ In the morning you must come by tribes, and the Lord will point out the tribe to which the guilty man belongs. And that tribe must come by its clans and the Lord will point out the guilty clan; and the clan must come by its families, and then each member of the guilty family must come one by one. ¹⁵ And the one who has stolen that which belongs to the Lord shall be burned with fire, along with everything he has, for he has violated the covenant of the Lord and has brought calamity upon all of Israel.’”

¹⁶ So, early the next morning, Joshua brought the tribes of Israel before the Lord, and the tribe of Judah was indicated. ¹⁷ Then he brought the clans of Judah, and the clan of Zerah was singled out. Then the families of that clan were brought before the Lord and the family of Zabdi was indicated. ¹⁸ Zabdi’s family was brought man by man, and his grandson Achan was found to be the guilty one.

¹⁹ Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the God of Israel and make your confession. Tell me what you have done.”

²⁰ Achan replied, “I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. ²¹ For I saw a beautiful robe imported from Babylon, and some silver worth $200, and a bar of gold worth $500. I wanted them so much that I took them, and they are hidden in the ground beneath my tent, with the silver buried deeper than the rest.”

²² So Joshua sent some men to search for the loot. They ran to the tent and found the stolen goods hidden there just as Achan had said, with the silver buried beneath the rest. ²³ They brought it all to Joshua and laid it on the ground in front of him. ²⁴ Then Joshua and all the Israelites took Achan, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, donkeys, sheep, his tent, and everything he had, and brought them to the valley of Achor.

²⁵ Then Joshua said to Achan, “Why have you brought calamity upon us? The Lord will now bring calamity upon you.”

And the men of Israel stoned them to death and burned their bodies, ²⁶ and piled a great heap of stones upon them. The stones are still there to this day, and even today that place is called “The Valley of Calamity.” And so the fierce anger of the Lord was ended.

8 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid or discouraged; take the entire army and go to Ai, for it is now yours to conquer. I have given the king of Ai and all of his people to you. ² You shall do to them as you did to Jericho and her king; but this time you may keep the loot and the cattle for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”

^3-4 Before the main army left for Ai, Joshua sent thirty thousand of his bravest troops to hide in ambush close behind the city, alert for action.

⁵ “This is the plan,” he explained to them. “When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away. ⁶ We will let them chase us until they have all left the city; for they will say, ‘The Israelis are running away again just as they did before!’ ⁷ Then you will jump up from your ambush and enter the city, for the Lord will give it to you. ⁸ Set the city on fire, as the Lord has commanded. You now have your instructions.”

⁹ So they left that night and lay in ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai; but Joshua and the rest of the army remained in the camp at Jericho. ¹⁰ Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel, ^11-13 and stopped at the edge of a valley north of the city. That night Joshua sent another five thousand men^[j] to join the troops in ambush on the west side of the city. He himself spent the night in the valley.

¹⁴ The king of Ai, seeing the Israelis across the valley, went out early the next morning and attacked at the plain of the Arabah. But of course he didn’t realize that there was an ambush behind the city. ¹⁵ Joshua and the Israeli army fled across the wilderness as though badly beaten, ¹⁶ and all the soldiers in the city were called out to chase after them; so the city was left defenseless; ¹⁷ there was not a soldier left in Ai or Bethel, and the city gates were left wide open.

¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Point your spear toward Ai, for I will give you the city.” Joshua did. ¹⁹ And when the men in ambush saw his signal, they jumped up and poured into the city and set it on fire. ^20-21 When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the city was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. When Joshua and the troops who were with him saw the smoke, they knew that their men who had been in ambush were inside the city, so they turned upon their pursuers and began killing them. ²² Then the Israelis who were inside the city came out and began destroying the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in a trap and all of them died; not one man survived or escaped, ²³ except for the king of Ai, who was captured and brought to Joshua.

²⁴ When the army of Israel had finished slaughtering all the men outside the city, they went back and finished off everyone left inside. ²⁵ So the entire population of Ai, twelve thousand in all, was wiped out that day. ²⁶ For Joshua kept his spear pointed toward Ai until the last person was dead. ²⁷ Only the cattle and the loot were not destroyed, for the armies of Israel kept these for themselves. (The Lord had told Joshua they could.) ²⁸ So Ai became a desolate mound of refuse, as it still is today.

²⁹ Joshua hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening, but as the sun was going down, he took down the body and threw it in front of the city gate. There he piled a great heap of stones over it, which can still be seen.

³⁰ Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel at Mount Ebal, ³¹ as Moses had commanded^[k] in the book of his laws: “Make me an altar of boulders that have neither been broken nor carved,” the Lord had said concerning Mount Ebal. Then the priests offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings to the Lord on the altar. ³² And as the people of Israel watched, Joshua carved upon the stones of the altar each of the Ten Commandments.^[l]

³³ Then all the people of Israel—including the elders, officers, judges, and the foreigners living among them—divided into two groups, half of them standing at the foot of Mount Gerizim and half at the foot of Mount Ebal. Between them stood the priests with the Ark, ready to pronounce their blessing. (This was all done in accordance with the instructions given long before by Moses.) ³⁴ Joshua then read to them all of the statements of blessing and curses that Moses had written in the book of God’s laws. ³⁵ Every commandment Moses had ever given was read before the entire assembly, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among the Israelis.

9 ^1-2 When the kings of the surrounding area heard what had happened to Jericho, they quickly combined their armies to fight for their lives against Joshua and the Israelis. These were the kings of the nations west of the Jordan River, along the shores of the Mediterranean as far north as the Lebanon mountains—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

^3-5 But when the people of Gibeon heard what had happened to Jericho and Ai, they resorted to trickery to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua wearing worn-out clothing, as though from a long journey, with patched shoes, weatherworn saddlebags on their donkeys, old, patched wineskins and dry, moldy bread. ⁶ When they arrived at the camp of Israel at Gilgal, they told Joshua and the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant land to ask for a peace treaty with you.”

⁷ The Israelis replied to these Hivites, “How do we know you don’t live nearby? For if you do, we cannot make a treaty with you.”

⁸ They replied, “We will be your slaves.”

“But who are you?” Joshua demanded. “Where do you come from?”

⁹ And they told him, “We are from a very distant country; we have heard of the might of the Lord your God and of all that he did in Egypt, ¹⁰ and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites—Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan. ¹¹ So our elders and our people instructed us, ‘Prepare for a long journey; go to the people of Israel and declare our nation to be their servants, and ask for peace.’ ¹² This bread was hot from the ovens when we left, but now as you see, it is dry and moldy; ¹³ these wineskins were new, but now they are old and cracked; our clothing and shoes have become worn out from our long, hard trip.”

^14-15 Joshua and the other leaders finally believed them. They did not bother to ask the Lord but went ahead and signed a peace treaty. And the leaders of Israel ratified the agreement with a binding oath.

¹⁶ Three days later the facts came out—these men were close neighbors. ¹⁷ The Israeli army set out at once to investigate and reached their cities in three days. (The names of the cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.) ¹⁸ But the cities were not harmed because of the vow which the leaders of Israel had made before the Lord God. The people of Israel were angry with their leaders because of the peace treaty.

¹⁹ But the leaders replied, “We have sworn before the Lord God of Israel that we will not touch them, and we won’t. ²⁰ We must let them live, for if we break our oath, the wrath of Jehovah will be upon us.”

²¹ So they became servants of the Israelis, chopping their wood and carrying their water.

²² Joshua summoned their leaders and demanded, “Why have you lied to us by saying that you lived in a distant land, when you were actually living right here among us? ²³ Now a curse shall be upon you! From this moment you must always furnish us with servants to chop wood and carry water for the service of our God.”

²⁴ They replied, “We did it because we were told that Jehovah instructed his disciple Moses to conquer this entire land and destroy all the people living in it. So we feared for our lives because of you; that is why we have done it. ²⁵ But now we are in your hands; you may do with us as you wish.”

²⁶ So Joshua would not allow the people of Israel to kill them, ²⁷ but they became woodchoppers and water-carriers for the people of Israel and for the altar of the Lord—wherever it would be built (for the Lord hadn’t yet told them where to build it). This arrangement is still in force at the time of this writing.

10 When Adoni-zedek, the king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured and destroyed Ai and had killed its king, the same as he had done at Jericho, and how the people of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were now their allies, ² he was very frightened. For Gibeon was a great city—as great as the royal cities and much larger than Ai—and its men were known as hard fighters. ³ So King Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem sent messengers to several other kings: King Hoham of Hebron, King Piram of Jarmuth, King Japhia of Lachish, King Debir of Eglon.

⁴ “Come and help me destroy Gibeon,” he urged them, “for they have made peace with Joshua and the people of Israel.”

⁵ So these five Amorite kings combined their armies for a united attack on Gibeon. ⁶ The men of Gibeon hurriedly sent messengers to Joshua at Gilgal.

“Come and help your servants!” they demanded. “Come quickly and save us! For all the kings of the Amorites who live in the hills are here with their armies.”

⁷ So Joshua and the Israeli army left Gilgal and went to rescue Gibeon.

⁸ “Don’t be afraid of them,” the Lord said to Joshua, “for they are already defeated! I have given them to you to destroy. Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you.”

⁹ Joshua traveled all night from Gilgal and took the enemy armies by surprise. ¹⁰ Then the Lord threw them into a panic so that the army of Israel slaughtered great numbers of them at Gibeon and chased the others all the way to Beth-horon and Azekah and Makkedah, killing them along the way. ¹¹ And as the enemy was racing down the hill to Beth-horon, the Lord destroyed them with a great hailstorm that continued all the way to Azekah; in fact, more men died from the hail than by the swords of the Israelis.

¹² As the men of Israel were pursuing and harassing the foe, Joshua prayed aloud, “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and let the moon stand in its place over the valley of Aijalon!”

¹³ And the sun and the moon didn’t move until the Israeli army had finished the destruction of its enemies! This is described in greater detail in The Book of Jashar. So the sun stopped in the heavens and stayed there for almost twenty-four hours! ¹⁴ There had never been such a day before, and there has never been another since, when the Lord stopped the sun and moon—all because of the prayer of one man. But the Lord was fighting for Israel. ¹⁵ (Afterwards Joshua and the Israeli army returned to Gilgal.)

¹⁶ During the battle the five kings escaped and hid in a cave at Makkedah. ¹⁷ When the news was brought to Joshua that they had been found, ¹⁸ he issued a command that a great stone be rolled against the mouth of the cave and that guards be placed there to keep the kings inside.

¹⁹ Then Joshua commanded the rest of the army, “Go on chasing the enemy and cut them down from the rear. Don’t let them get back to their cities, for the Lord will help you to completely destroy them.”

²⁰ So Joshua and the Israeli army continued the slaughter and wiped out the five armies except for a tiny remnant that managed to reach their fortified cities. ²¹ Then the Israelis returned to their camp at Makkedah without having lost a single man! And after that no one dared to attack Israel.

^22-23 Joshua now instructed his men to remove the stone from the mouth of the cave and to bring out the five kings—of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. ²⁴ Joshua told the captains of his army to put their feet on the kings’ necks.

²⁵ “Don’t ever be afraid or discouraged,” Joshua said to his men. “Be strong and courageous, for the Lord is going to do this to all of your enemies.”

²⁶ With that, Joshua plunged his sword into each of the five kings, killing them. He then hanged them on five trees until evening.

²⁷ As the sun was going down, Joshua instructed that their bodies be taken down and thrown into the cave where they had been hiding; and a great pile of stones was placed at the mouth of the cave. (The pile is still there today.)

²⁸ On that same day Joshua destroyed the city of Makkedah and killed its king and everyone in it. Not one person in the entire city was left alive. ²⁹ Then the Israelis went to Libnah. ³⁰ There, too, the Lord gave them the city and its king. Every last person was slaughtered, just as at Jericho.

³¹ From Libnah they went to Lachish and attacked it. ³² And the Lord gave it to them on the second day; here, too, the entire population was slaughtered, just as at Libnah.

³³ During the attack on Lachish, King Horam of Gezer arrived with his army to try to help defend the city, but Joshua’s men killed him and destroyed his entire army.

^34-35 The Israeli army then captured Eglon on the first day and, as at Lachish, they killed everyone in the city. ³⁶ After leaving Eglon they went to Hebron ³⁷ and captured it and all of its surrounding villages, slaughtering the entire population. Not one person was left alive. ³⁸ Then they turned back to Debir, ³⁹ which they quickly captured with all of its outlying villages. And they killed everyone just as they had at Libnah.

⁴⁰ So Joshua and his army conquered the whole country—the nations and kings of the hill country, the Negeb, the lowlands, and the mountain slopes. They destroyed everyone in the land, just as the Lord God of Israel had commanded, ⁴¹ slaughtering them from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza, and from Goshen to Gibeon. ⁴² This was all accomplished in one campaign, for the Lord God of Israel was fighting for his people. ⁴³ Then Joshua and his army returned to their camp at Gilgal.

11 ^1-3 When King Jabin of Hazor heard what had happened, he sent urgent messages to the following kings:

⁴ All these kings responded by mobilizing their armies and uniting to crush Israel. Their combined troops, along with a vast array of horses and chariots, covered the landscape around the springs of Merom as far as one could see; ⁵ for they established their camp at the springs of Merom.

⁶ But the Lord said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid of them, for by this time tomorrow they will all be dead! Hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.” ⁷ Joshua and his troops arrived suddenly at the springs of Merom and attacked. ⁸ And the Lord gave all that vast army to the Israelis, who chased them as far as Great Sidon and a place called the Salt Pits, and eastward into the valley of Mizpah; so not one enemy troop survived the battle. ⁹ Then Joshua and his men did as the Lord had instructed, for they hamstrung the horses and burned all the chariots.

¹⁰ On the way back, Joshua captured Hazor and killed its king. (Hazor had at one time been the capital of the federation of all those kingdoms.) ¹¹ Every person there was killed and the city was burned.

¹² Then he attacked and destroyed all the other cities of those kings. All the people were slaughtered, just as Moses had commanded long before. ¹³ (However, Joshua did not burn any of the cities built on mounds except for Hazor.) ¹⁴ All the loot and cattle of the ravaged cities were taken by the Israelis for themselves, but they killed all the people. ¹⁵ For so the Lord had commanded his disciple Moses; and Moses had passed the commandment on to Joshua, who did as he had been told: he carefully obeyed all of the Lord’s instructions to Moses.

¹⁶ So Joshua conquered the entire land—the hill country, the Negeb, the land of Goshen, the lowlands, the Arabah, and the hills and lowlands of Israel. ¹⁷ The Israeli territory now extended all the way from Mount Halak, near Seir, to Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon, at the foot of Mount Hermon. And Joshua killed all the kings of those territories. ¹⁸ It took seven years^[m] of war to accomplish all of this. ¹⁹ None of the cities was given a peace treaty except the Hivites of Gibeon; all of the others were destroyed. ²⁰ For the Lord made the enemy kings want to fight the Israelis instead of asking for peace; so they were mercilessly killed, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

²¹ During this period Joshua routed all of the giants—the descendants of Anak who lived in the hill country in Hebron, Debir, Anab, Judah, and Israel; he killed them all and completely destroyed their cities. ²² None was left in all the land of Israel, though some still remained in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod.

²³ So Joshua took the entire land just as the Lord had instructed Moses; and he gave it to the people of Israel as their inheritance, dividing the land among the tribes. So the land finally rested from its war.

12 Here is the list of the kings on the east side of the Jordan River whose cities were destroyed by the Israelis: (The area involved stretched all the way from the valley of the Arnon River to Mount Hermon, including the cities of the eastern desert.)

² King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. His kingdom extended from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and from the middle of the valley of the Arnon River to the Jabbok River, which is the boundary of the Ammonites. This includes half of the present area of Gilead, which lies north of the Jabbok River. ³ Sihon also controlled the Jordan River Valley as far north as the western shores of the Lake of Galilee; and as far south as the Dead Sea and the slopes of Mount Pisgah.

⁴ King Og of Bashan, the last of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and Edrei: ⁵ He ruled a territory stretching from Mount Hermon in the north to Salecah on Mount Bashan in the east, and on the west, extending to the boundary of the kingdoms of Geshur and Maacah. His kingdom also stretched south to include the northern half of Gilead where the boundary touched the border of the kingdom of Sihon, king of Heshbon. ⁶ Moses and the people of Israel had destroyed these people, and Moses gave the land to the tribes of Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁷ Here is a list of the kings destroyed by Joshua and the armies of Israel on the west side of the Jordan. (This land which lay between Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon and Mount Halak, west of Mount Seir, was allotted by Joshua to the other tribes of Israel. ^8-24 The area included the hill country, the lowlands, the Arabah, the mountain slopes, the Judean Desert, and the Negeb.

The people who lived there were the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites): the king of Jericho; the king of Ai, near Bethel; the king of Jerusalem; the king of Hebron; the king of Jarmuth; the king of Lachish; the king of Eglon; the king of Gezer; the king of Debir; the king of Geder; the king of Hormah; the king of Arad; the king of Libnah; the king of Adullam; the king of Makkedah; the king of Bethel; the king of Tappuah; the king of Hepher; the king of Aphek; the king of Lasharon; the king of Madon; the king of Hazor; the king of Shimron-meron; the king of Achshaph; the king of Taanach; the king of Megiddo; the king of Kedesh; the king of Jokneam, in Carmel; the king of Dor in the city of Naphathdor; the king of Goiim in Gilgal; the king of Tirzah. So in all, thirty-one kings and their cities were destroyed.