1 After the death of Moshe the servant of Adonai, Adonai said to Y’hoshua the son of Nun, Moshe’s assistant, ² “Moshe my servant is dead. So now, get up and cross over this Yarden, you and all the people, to the land I am giving to them, the people of Isra’el. ³ I am giving you every place you will step on with the sole of your foot, as I said to Moshe. ⁴ All the land from the desert and the L’vanon to the great river, the Euphrates River — all the land of the Hitti — and on to the Great Sea in the west will be your territory. ⁵ No one will be able to withstand you as long as you live. Just as I was with Moshe, so I will be with you. I will neither fail you nor abandon you.

⁶ “Be strong, be bold; for you will cause this people to inherit the land I swore to their fathers I would give them. ⁷ Only be strong and very bold in taking care to follow all the Torah which Moshe my servant ordered you to follow; do not turn from it either to the right or to the left; then you will succeed wherever you go. ⁸ Yes, keep this book of the Torah on your lips, and meditate on it day and night, so that you will take care to act according to everything written in it. Then your undertakings will prosper, and you will succeed. ⁹ Haven’t I ordered you, ‘Be strong, be bold’? So don’t be afraid or downhearted, because Adonai your God is with you wherever you go.”

¹⁰ Y’hoshua instructed the officials of the people ¹¹ to go through the camp and order the people, “Prepare provisions, because in three days you will cross this Yarden to go in and take possession of the land Adonai your God is giving you.”

¹² To the Re’uveni, the Gadi and the half-tribe of M’nasheh Y’hoshua said, ¹³ “Remember what Moshe the servant of Adonai ordered you: ‘Adonai your God has let you rest and will give you this land.’ ¹⁴ Your wives, your little ones and your livestock will stay in the land Moshe gave you on the east side of the Yarden; but you are to cross over armed as a fighting force ahead of your brothers, to help them; ¹⁵ until Adonai allows your brothers to rest, as he has allowed you; and they too have taken possession of the land Adonai your God is giving them. At that point, you will return to the land which is yours and possess it, the land Moshe the servant of Adonai gave you in ‘Ever-HaYarden to the east, toward the sunrise.”

¹⁶ They answered Y’hoshua, “We will do everything you have ordered us to do, and we will go wherever you send us. ¹⁷ Just as we listened to everything Moshe said, so will we listen to you. Only may Adonai your God be with you as he was with Moshe. ¹⁸ If anyone rebels against your order and doesn’t heed what you say in every detail of your order, he will be put to death. Just be strong, be bold!”

2 Y’hoshua the son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Sheetim with these instructions: “Go, inspect the land and Yericho.” They left and came to the house of a prostitute named Rachav, where they spent the night. ² The king of Yericho was told about it — “Tonight some men from Isra’el came here to reconnoiter the land.”

³ The king of Yericho sent a message to Rachav, “Bring out the men who came to you and are staying in your house, because they have come to reconnoiter all the land.” ⁴ However, the woman, after taking the two men and hiding them, replied, “Yes, the men did come to me; but I didn’t know where they had come from. ⁵ The men left around the time when they shut the gate, when it was dark. Where they went I don’t know; but if you chase after them quickly, you will overtake them.” ⁶ Actually she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them under some stalks of flax she had spread out there. ⁷ The men pursued them all the way to the fords at the Yarden; as soon as the pursuit party had left, the gate was shut.

⁸ The two men had not yet lain down when she returned to the roof ⁹ and said to them, “I know that Adonai has given you the land. Fear of you has fallen on us; everyone in the land is terrified at the thought of you. ¹⁰ We’ve heard how Adonai dried up the water in the Sea of Suf ahead of you, when you left Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Emori on the other side of the Yarden, Sichon and ‘Og, that you completely destroyed them. ¹¹ As soon as we heard it, our hearts failed us. Because of you, everyone is in a state of depression. For Adonai your God — he is God in heaven above and on the earth below. ¹² So, please, swear to me by Adonai that, since I have been kind to you, you will also be kind to my father’s family. Give me some evidence of your good faith, ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father, mother, brothers and sisters and all who are theirs, so that we won’t be killed.” ¹⁴ The men replied to her, “Our lives are certainly worth yours, provided you don’t betray our mission. So when Adonai gives us the land, we will treat you kindly and in good faith.”

¹⁵ Then she lowered them by a rope through the window; since her house abutted the city wall, indeed was actually built into it. ¹⁶ She told them, “Head for the hills, so that the pursuit party won’t get their hands on you; and hide yourselves there for three days, until the pursuers have returned. After that, you can go on your way.” ¹⁷ The men said to her, “We will not be guilty of violating the oath you made us swear, provided that ¹⁸ when we enter the land, you tie this piece of scarlet cord in the window you let us down from; and you gather together in your house your father, mother, brothers, and your father’s entire household. ¹⁹ If anyone goes out the doors of your house into the street, he will be responsible for his own blood, and we will be guiltless. But everyone who stays with you in the house — we will be responsible for his blood if anyone lays a hand on him. ²⁰ However, if you say a word about this business of ours, then we will be free of your oath that you made us swear.” ²¹ “According to your words, so be it,” she said, and sent them away. As they departed, she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

²² They left, arrived in the hills, and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers had searched for them all the way but hadn’t found them. ²³ Then the two men returned. Descending from the hills they crossed over and came to Y’hoshua the son of Nun, and reported everything that had happened to them. ²⁴ “Truly Adonai has handed over all the land to us,” they told Y’hoshua. “Everyone in the land is terrified that we’re coming.”

3 Y’hoshua got up early in the morning, and they left Sheetim and came to the Yarden, he with all the people of Isra’el; they camped there before crossing. ² After three days, the officials circulated through the camp ³ and gave the people these orders: “When you see the ark for the covenant of Adonai your God and the cohanim, who are L’vi’im, carrying it, you are to leave your position and follow it. ⁴ But keep a distance between yourelves and it of about a thousand yards — don’t come any closer, so that you will understand which way to go, because you haven’t gone this way before.”

⁵ Y’hoshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, because tomorrow Adonai is going to work wonders among you.” ⁶ Then Y’hoshua said to the cohanim, “Take the ark for the covenant, and go on ahead of the people.” They took the ark for the covenant and went ahead of the people.

⁷ Adonai said to Y’hoshua, “Starting today, I will make you great in full view of all Isra’el; so that they will know that just as I was with Moshe, so I will be with you. ⁸ Now you are to order the cohanim carrying the ark for the covenant as follows: ‘When you come to the edge of the Yarden River, you are to stop in the Yarden itself.’”

⁹ Y’hoshua said to the people of Isra’el, “Come here, and listen to the words of Adonai your God.” ¹⁰ Then Y’hoshua said, “Here is how you will know that the living God is here with you and that, without fail, he will drive out from before you the Kena‘ani, the Hitti, the Hivi, the P’rizi, the Girgashi, the Emori and the Y’vusi: ¹¹ the ark for the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going on ahead of you across the Yarden. ¹² Now choose yourselves twelve men out of the tribes of Isra’el, one man for each tribe. ¹³ As soon as the cohanim carrying the ark of Adonai, the Lord of all the earth, put the soles of their feet in the water of the Yarden, the water of the Yarden will be cut off upstream and stand piled up like an embankment.”

¹⁴ So the people left their tents to cross the Yarden, with the cohanim carrying the ark for the covenant ahead of the people. ¹⁵ When those carrying the ark had come to the Yarden, and the cohanim carrying the ark had waded into the water (for throughout harvest season the Yarden overflows its banks), ¹⁶ the water upstream stood piled up like an embankment for a great distance at Adam, the city next to Tzartan; so that the water flowing downstream toward the Sea of the ‘Aravah, the Dead Sea, was completely cut off; and the people crossed over right by Yericho. ¹⁷ The cohanim carrying the ark for the covenant of Adonai stood fast on dry ground in the middle of the Yarden, while all Isra’el crossed on dry ground, until the entire nation had finished crossing the Yarden.