Joshua 3

Revised Geneva Translation

3 Then Joshua rose very early. And they left Shittim and came to the Jordan (he and all the children of Israel) and lodged there before they went over.

² And after three days, the officers went throughout the camp,

³ and commanded the people, saying, “When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests of the Levites bearing it, you shall depart from your place and go after it.

⁴ “Still, there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. You shall not come near it, so that you may know the way by which you shall go. For you have not gone this way before.”

⁵ Now Joshua had said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves! For tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you!

⁶ Also, Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and go over before the people.” So they took up the Ark of the Covenant, and went before the people.

⁷ Then the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, which shall know that as I was with Moses so I will be with you.

⁸ “You shall, therefore, command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’”

⁹ Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here and hear the Words of the LORD your God!”

¹⁰ And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will certainly cast out before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites.

¹¹ “Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD of all the world passes before you into the Jordan.

¹² “Now, therefore, take from among you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, a man out of every tribe.

¹³ “And as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the Ark of the LORD God, the Lord of all the world, shall stay in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off. For the waters that come from above shall stand still in one heap.”

¹⁴ Then, when the people had departed from their tents to go over the Jordan, the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant went before the people.

¹⁵ And as those who bore the Ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the Ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest),

¹⁶ then the waters that came down from above, stayed, rose in one heap, and departed far from the city, to Adam, which was beside Zaretan. But the waters that came down toward the Sea of the Wilderness (the Salt Sea) failed and were cut off. So, the people went right over, near Jericho.

¹⁷ But the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, stood firm and dry within the Jordan. And all the Israelites went over, dry, until all the people had completely gone over, through the Jordan.