Conquest of Canaan

After the death of Moshe the servant of ADONAI, ADONAI said to Y'hoshua the son of Nun, Moshe's assistant,

"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.

I am giving you every place you will step on with the sole of your foot, as I said to Moshe.

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.

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.

"Be strong, be bold; for you will cause this people to inherit the land I swore to their fathers I would give them.

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.

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.

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."

Y'hoshua instructed the officials of the people

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."

To the Re'uveni, the Gadi and the half-tribe of M'nasheh Y'hoshua said,

"Remember what Moshe the servant of ADONAI ordered you: 'ADONAI your God has let you rest and will give you this land.'

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;

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."

They answered Y'hoshua, "We will do everything you have ordered us to do, and we will go wherever you send us.

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.

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!"

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.

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

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."

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.

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."

Actually she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them under some stalks of flax she had spread out there.

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.