Joshua

Those twelve stones which they took out of the Yarden, Y'hoshua piled up at Gilgal.

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].

The reason Y'hoshua circumcised was that all the people who had left Egypt who were males, all the fighting men, had died in the desert along the way after leaving Egypt.

So he raised up their children to take their place, and it was these whom Y'hoshua circumcised; till then they had been uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised while traveling.

ADONAI said to Y'hoshua, "Today I have rolled off from you the stigma of Egypt." This is why the place has been called Gilgal [rolling] ever since.

One day, when Y'hoshua was there by Yericho, he raised his eyes and looked; and in front of him stood a man with his drawn sword in his hand. Y'hoshua went over to him and asked him, "Are you on our side or on the side of our enemies?"

"No," he replied, "but I am the commander of ADONAI's army; I have come just now." Y'hoshua fell down with his face to the ground and worshipped him, then asked, "What does my lord have to say to his servant?"

The commander of ADONAI's army answered Y'hoshua, "Take your sandals off your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy." And Y'hoshua did so.

ADONAI said to Y'hoshua, "I have handed Yericho over to you, including its king and his warriors.

Y'hoshua the son of Nun called the cohanim and told them, "Take up the ark for the covenant, and have seven cohanim carry seven shofars ahead of the ark of ADONAI."

When Y'hoshua had spoken to the people, the seven cohanim carrying the seven shofars before ADONAI passed on and blew on the shofars, with the ark for the covenant of ADONAI following them.

Y'hoshua gave this order to the people: "Don't shout, don't let your voice be heard, don't let a single word out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout; then you will shout."

The next morning Y'hoshua got up early, and the cohanim took up the ark of ADONAI.

The seventh time, when the cohanim blew on their shofars, Y'hoshua said to the people, "Shout! because ADONAI has given you the city!

Y'hoshua said to the two men who had reconnoitered the land, "Go into the prostitute's house and bring the woman out with all that she has, as you swore to her."

But Y'hoshua spared Rachav the prostitute, her father's household and everything she had; and she has continued living with Isra'el from then until now; because she hid the messengers Y'hoshua had sent to reconnoiter Yericho.

Y'hoshua then made the people take this oath: "A curse before ADONAI on anyone who rises up and rebuilds this city of Yericho: he will lay its foundation with the loss of his firstborn son and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son."

So ADONAI was with Y'hoshua, and people heard about him throughout the land.

Y'hoshua sent men from Yericho to 'Ai, which is next to Beit-Aven, east of Beit-El, telling them to go up and spy out the land. So the men went up, reconnoitered 'Ai,

returned to Y'hoshua and told him, "Don't have all the people go up; but let perhaps two or three thousand men go up and attack 'Ai. There's no point in making all the people exert themselves to get there, because there are only a few of them."

Y'hoshua tore his clothes and fell to his face on the ground before the ark of ADONAI until evening, he and the leaders of Isra'el, and they put dust on their heads.

Y'hoshua said, "Oh, Adonai ELOHIM! Why did you take the trouble to bring this people across the Yarden if you meant to hand us over to the Emori and have us perish? We should have been satisfied to live on the other side of the Yarden!

ADONAI said to Y'hoshua, "Stand up! Why are you lying there face down?

So Y'hoshua got up early in the morning and had Isra'el come forward, one tribe at a time; and the tribe of Y'hudah was taken.