Conquest of Canaan

Then Ioshua said vnto the children of Israel, Come hither, and heare the wordes of the Lord your God.

And Ioshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the liuing God is among you, and that he will certainely cast out before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hiuites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Iebusites.

Beholde, the Arke of the couenant of the Lord of all the worlde passeth before you into Iorden.

Nowe therefore take from among you twelue men out of the tribes of Israel, out of euery tribe a man.

And assoone as the soles of the feete of the Priestes (that beare the Arke of the Lord God the Lord of all the worlde) shall stay in the waters of Iorden, the waters of Iorden shall be cut off: for the waters that come from aboue, shall stande still vpon an heape.

Then when the people were departed from their tentes to goe ouer Iorden, the Priestes bearing the Arke of the Couenant, went before people.

And as they that bare the Arke came vnto Iorden, and the feete of the Priestes that bare the Arke were dipped in the brinke of the water, (for Iorden vseth to fill all his bankes all the time of haruest)

Then the waters that came downe from aboue, stayed and rose vpon an heape and departed farre from the citie of Adam, that was beside Zaretan: but the waters that came downe towarde the Sea of the wildernes, euen the salt Sea, failed, and were cut off: so the people went right ouer against Iericho.

But the Priestes that bare the Arke of the couenant of the Lord, stoode drie within Iorden readie prepared, and all the Israelites went ouer dry, vntill all the people were gone cleane ouer through Iorden.

And when all the people were wholy gone ouer Iorden, (after the Lord had spoken vnto Ioshua, saying,

Take you twelue me out of the people, out of euery tribe a man,

And command you them, saying, Take you hence out of the middes of Iorden, out of the place where the Priestes stoode in a readinesse, twelue stones, which ye shall take away with you, and leaue them in the lodging where you shall lodge this night)

Then Ioshua called the twelue men, whome he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of euery tribe a man,

And Ioshua said vnto them, Go ouer before the Arke of the Lord your God, euen through the middes of Iorden, and take vp euery man of you a stone vpon his shoulder according vnto the nomber of the tribes of the children of Israel,

That this may bee a signe among you, that whe your children shall aske their fathers in time to come, saying, What meane you by these stones?

Then ye may answere them, That the waters of Iorden were cut off before the Arke of the couenant of the Lord: for when it passed through Iorden, the waters of Iorden were cut off: therefore these stones are a memoriall vnto the children of Israel for euer.

Then ye children of Israel did euen so as Ioshua had commanded, and tooke vp twelue stones out of the mids of Iorden as ye Lord had said vnto Ioshua, according to the nomber of the tribes of the children of Israel, and caried them away with them vnto the lodging, and layd them down there.

And Ioshua set vp twelue stones in the middes of Iorden, in the place where the feete of the Priests, which bare the Arke of the couenant stood, and there haue they continued vnto this day.

So the Priests, which bare ye Arke, stoode in the middes of Iorden, vntill euery thing was finished that ye Lord had comanded Ioshua to say vnto the people, according to all that Moses charged Ioshua: then the people hasted and went ouer.

When all the people were cleane passed ouer, the Arke of the Lord went ouer also, and the Priests before the people.

And the sonnes of Reuben, and the sonnes of Gad, and halfe the tribe of Manasseh went ouer before the children of Israel armed, as Moses had charged them.

Euen fourty thousand prepared for warre, went before the Lord vnto battel, into ye plaine of Iericho.

That day the Lord magnified Ioshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him, as they feared Moses all dayes of his life.

And the Lord spake vnto Ioshua, saying,

Commande the Priests that beare ye Arke of the testimonie, to come vp out of Iorden.