Conquest of Canaan

So Joshua told the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.”

He continued, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that He will surely drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.

Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go ahead of you into the Jordan.

Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.

When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”

So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them.

Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,

the flowing water stood still. It backed up as far upstream as Adam, a city in the area of Zarethan, while the water flowing toward the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over the dry ground, until the entire nation had crossed the Jordan.

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua,

“Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,

and command them: ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests were standing, carry them with you, and set them down in the place where you spend the night.’”

So Joshua summoned the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe,

and said to them, “Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel,

to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’

you are to tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.”

Thus the Israelites did as Joshua had commanded them. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each tribe of Israel, just as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them to the camp, where they set them down.

Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood. And the stones are there to this day.

Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until the people had completed everything the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell them, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried across,

and after everyone had finished crossing, the priests with the ark of the LORD crossed in the sight of the people.

The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over before the Israelites, armed for battle as Moses had instructed them.

About 40,000 troops armed for battle crossed over before the LORD into the plains of Jericho.

On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses.

Then the LORD said to Joshua,

“Command the priests who carry the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan.”