Conquest of Canaan

And Joshua said to the children of Israel: Come hither, and hear the word of the Lord your God.

And again he said: By this you shall know, that the Lord, the living God, is in the midst of you, and that he shall destroy, before your sight, the Chanaanite and the Hethite, the Hevite and the Pherezite, the Gergesite also, and the Jebusite, and the Amorrhite.

Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth shall go before you into the Jordan.

Prepare ye twelve men of the tribes of Israel, one of every tribe.

And when the priests, that carry the ark of the Lord the God of the whole earth, shall set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters that are beneath shall run down and go off: and those that come from above, shall stand together upon a heap.

So the people went out of their tents, to pass over the Jordan: and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant, went on before them.

And as soon as they came into the Jordan, and their feet were dipped in part of the water, (now the Jordan, it being harvest time, had filled the banks of its channel,)

The waters that came down from above stood in one place, and swelling up like a mountain, were seen afar off, from the city that is called Adom, to the place of Sarthan: but those that were beneath, ran down into the sea of the wilderness, (which now is called the Dead Sea) until they wholly failed.

And the people marched over against Jericho: and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood girded upon the dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all the people passed over, through the channel that was dried up.

And when they were passed over, the Lord said to Joshua:

Choose twelve men, one of every tribe:

And command them to take out of the midst of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood, twelve very hard stones, which you shall set in the place of the camp, where you shall pitch your tents this night.

And Joshua called twelve men, whom he had chosen out of the children of Israel, one out of every tribe,

And he said to them: Go before the ark of the Lord your God to the midst of the Jordan, and carry from thence every man a stone on your shoulders, according to the number of the children of Israel,

That it may be a sign among you: and when your children shall ask you tomorrow, saying: What means these stones?

You shall answer them: The waters of the Jordan ran off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it passed over the same: therefore were these stones set for a monument of the children of Israel forever.

The children of Israel therefore did as Joshua commanded them, carrying out of the channel of the Jordan twelve stones, as the Lord had commanded him according to the number of the children of Israel unto the place wherein they camped, and there they set them.

And Joshua put other twelve stones in the midst of the channel of the Jordan, where the priests stood that carried the ark of the covenant: and they are there until this present day.

Now the priests that carried the ark, stood in the midst of the Jordan, till all things were accomplished, which the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, and Moses had said to him. And the people made haste, and passed over.

And when they had all passed over, the ark also of the Lord passed over, and the priests went before the people.

The children of Ruben also, and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasses, went armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had commanded them.

And forty thousand fighting men by their troops and bands, marched through the plains and fields of the city of Jericho.

In that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, that they should fear him, as they had feared Moses, while he lived.

And he said to him:

Command the priests, that carry the ark of the covenant, to come up out of the Jordan.