Israel

"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.

The king of Yericho was told about it - "Tonight some men from Isra'el came here to reconnoiter the land."

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.

Y'hoshua said to the people of Isra'el, "Come here, and listen to the words of ADONAI your God."

Y'hoshua called the twelve men whom he had chosen from the people of Isra'el, a man from every tribe,

and said to them, "Go on ahead of the ark of ADONAI your God into the riverbed of the Yarden. Then, each of you take a stone on his shoulder, corresponding to the number of tribes of the people of Isra'el.

you will answer them, 'It's because the water in the Yarden was cut off before the ark for the covenant of ADONAI; when it crossed the Yarden, the water in the Yarden was cut off; and these stones are to be a reminder for the people of Isra'el forever.'"

The people of Isra'el did just as Y'hoshua had ordered. They took twelve stones out of the Yarden riverbed, as ADONAI had said to Y'hoshua, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the people of Isra'el, carried them over with them to the place where they were camping, and set them down there.

The descendants of Re'uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M'nasheh went on, armed, ahead of the people of Isra'el, as Moshe had said to them;

Then he said to the people of Isra'el, "In the future, when your children ask their fathers what these stones mean,

When all the kings of the Emori on the west side of the Yarden and all the kings of the Kena'ani near the sea heard how ADONAI had dried up the Yarden River ahead of the people of Isra'el until they had crossed it, their hearts failed them, and they fell into depression because of the people of Isra'el.

It was at that time that ADONAI said to Y'hoshua, "Make yourself knives of flint, and circumcise the people of Isra'el again, a second time.

So Y'hoshua made himself knives of flint and circumcised the people of Isra'el at Giv'at-Ha'Aralot [the hill of foreskins].

because the people of Isra'el walked forty years in the desert until the whole nation, that is, the fighting men who had left Egypt, had died out; because they had not heeded what ADONAI said. ADONAI had sworn that he would not allow them to see the land which ADONAI swore to their ancestors that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

The people of Isra'el camped at Gilgal, and they observed Pesach on the fourteenth day of the month, there on the plains of Yericho.

The following day, after they had eaten food produced in the land, the man ended. From then on the people of Isra'el no longer had man; instead, that year, they ate the produce of the land of Kena'an.

Yericho had completely barricaded its gates against the people of Isra'el - no one left, and no one entered.

But the people of Isra'el misappropriated some of the goods set aside to be destroyed; for 'Akhan, the son of Karmi, the son of Zavdi, the son of Zerach, of the tribe of Y'hudah, took some of the things reserved for destruction. In consequence, the anger of ADONAI blazed up against the people of Isra'el.

This is why the people of Isra'el cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs on their enemies, because they have come under a curse. I won't be with you any more unless you destroy the things meant for destruction that you have with you.

They took the things from inside the tent, brought them to Y'hoshua and all the people of Isra'el, and put them down before ADONAI.

as Moshe the servant of ADONAI had ordered the people of Isra'el to do (this is written in the book of the Torah of Moshe), an altar of uncut stones that no one had touched with an iron tool. On it they offered burnt offerings to ADONAI and sacrificed peace offerings.

He wrote there on the stones a copy of the Torah of Moshe, inscribing it in the presence of the people of Isra'el.

The people of Isra'el traveled and arrived at their cities on the third day. Their cities were Giv'on, K'firah, Be'erot and Kiryat-Ye'arim.

The people of Isra'el did not attack them, because the leading officials of the community had sworn to them by ADONAI, the God of Isra'el; but all the community grumbled against the leaders.

So Y'hoshua did exactly that: he saved them from the power of the people of Isra'el, so that they didn't kill them.