Joshua 4-6

Contemporary English Version

The People Set Up a Monument

4 After Israel had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua:

^2-3 Tell^[a] one man from each of the twelve tribes to pick up a large rock from where the priests are standing. Then tell the men to set up those rocks as a monument at the place where you camp tonight.

⁴ Joshua chose twelve men; then he called them together ⁵ and said:

Go to the middle of the riverbed where the sacred chest is, and pick up a large rock. Carry it on your shoulder to our camp. There are twelve of you, so there will be one rock for each tribe. ^6-7 Someday your children will ask, “Why are these rocks here?” Then you can tell them how the water stopped flowing when the chest was being carried across the river. These rocks will always remind our people of what happened here today.

⁸ The men followed the instructions that the Lord had given Joshua. They picked up twelve rocks, one for each tribe, and carried them to the camp, where they put them down.

⁹ Joshua set up a monument next to the place where the priests were standing. This monument was also made of twelve large rocks, and it is still there in the middle of the river.

The People of Israel Set Up Camp at Gilgal

^10-13 The army got ready for battle and crossed the Jordan with everyone else. They marched quickly past the sacred chest^[b] and into the desert near Jericho. Forty thousand soldiers from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh^[c] led the way, as Moses had ordered.^[d]

The priests stayed right where they were until the people had followed the orders that the Lord had given Moses and Joshua. Then they watched as the priests carried the chest the rest of the way across.

^14-18 “Joshua,” the Lord said, “tell the priests to come up from the Jordan and bring the chest with them.” So Joshua went over to the priests and told them what the Lord had said. And as soon as the priests carried the chest past the highest place that the floodwaters of the Jordan had reached, the river flooded its banks again.

That's how the Lord showed the Israelites that Joshua was their leader.^[e] For the rest of Joshua's life, they respected him as they had respected Moses.

¹⁹ It was the tenth day of the first month^[f] of the year when Israel crossed the Jordan River. They set up camp at Gilgal, which was east of the land controlled by Jericho. ²⁰ The men who had carried the twelve rocks from the Jordan brought them to Joshua, and they made them into a monument. ²¹ Then Joshua told the people:

Years from now your children will ask you why these rocks are here. ^22-23 Tell them, “The Lord our God dried up the Jordan River so we could walk across. He did the same thing here for us that he did for our people at the Red Sea,^{[g] 24} because he wants everyone on earth to know how powerful he is. And he wants us to worship only him.”

5 The Amorite kings west of the Jordan River and the Canaanite kings along the Mediterranean Sea lost their courage and their will to fight, when they heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan River to let Israel go across.

Israel Gets Ready To Celebrate Passover

² While Israel was camped at Gilgal, the Lord said, “Joshua, make some flint knives^[h] and circumcise the rest of the Israelite men and boys.”^[i]

³ Joshua made the knives, then circumcised those men and boys at Haaraloth Hill.^{[j] 4-7 (A)} This had to be done, because none of Israel's baby boys had been circumcised during the 40 years that Israel had wandered through the desert after leaving Egypt.

And why had they wandered for 40 years? It was because right after they left Egypt, the men in the army had disobeyed the Lord. And the Lord had said, “None of you men will ever live to see the land that I promised Israel. It is a land rich with milk and honey, and someday your children will live there, but not before you die here in the desert.”

⁸ Everyone who had been circumcised needed time to heal, and they stayed in camp.

⁹ The Lord told Joshua, “It was a disgrace for my people to be slaves in Egypt, but now I have taken away that disgrace.” So the Israelites named the place Gilgal,^[k] and it still has that name.

^10 (B) Israel continued to camp at Gilgal in the desert near Jericho, and on the fourteenth day of the same month,^[l] they celebrated Passover.

^11-12 (C) The next day, God stopped sending the Israelites manna^[m] to eat each morning, and they started eating food grown in the land of Canaan. They ate roasted grain^[n] and thin bread^[o] made of the barley they had gathered from nearby fields.

Israel Captures Jericho

¹³ One day, Joshua was near Jericho when he saw a man standing some distance in front of him. The man was holding a sword, so Joshua walked up to him and asked, “Are you on our side or on our enemies' side?”

¹⁴ “Neither,” he answered. “I am here because I am the commander of the Lord's army.”

Joshua fell to his knees and bowed down to the ground. “I am your servant,” he said. “Tell me what to do.”

¹⁵ “Take off your sandals,” the commander answered. “This is a holy place.”

So Joshua took off his sandals.

6 Meanwhile, the people of Jericho had been locking the gates in their town wall because they were afraid of the Israelites. No one could go out or come in.

^2-3 The Lord said to Joshua:

With my help, you and your army will defeat the king of Jericho and his army, and you will capture the town. Here is how to do it: March slowly around Jericho once a day for six days. ⁴ Take along the sacred chest and tell seven priests to walk in front of it, carrying trumpets.^[p]

But on the seventh day, march slowly around the town seven times while the priests blow their trumpets. ⁵ Then the priests will blast on their trumpets, and everyone else will shout. The wall will fall down, and your soldiers can go straight in from every side.

⁶ Joshua called the priests together and said, “Take the chest and tell seven priests to carry trumpets and march ahead of it.”

^7-10 Next, he gave the army their orders: “March slowly around Jericho. A few of you will go ahead of the chest to guard it, but most of you will follow it. Don't shout the battle cry or yell or even talk until the day I tell you to. Then let out a shout!”

As soon as Joshua finished giving the orders, the army started marching. One group of soldiers led the way, with seven priests marching behind them and blowing trumpets. Then came the priests carrying the chest, followed by the rest of the soldiers. ¹¹ They obeyed Joshua's orders and carried the chest once around the town before returning to camp for the night.

^12-14 Early the next morning, Joshua and everyone else started marching around Jericho in the same order as the day before. One group of soldiers was in front, followed by the seven priests with trumpets and the priests who carried the chest. The rest of the army came next. The seven priests blew their trumpets while everyone marched slowly around Jericho and back to camp. They did this once a day for six days.

¹⁵ On the seventh day, the army got up at daybreak. They marched slowly around Jericho the same as they had done for the past six days, except on this day they went around seven times. ¹⁶ Then the priests blew the trumpets, and Joshua yelled:

Get ready to shout! The Lord will let you capture this town. ¹⁷ But you must destroy it and everything in it, to show that it now belongs to the Lord.^[q] The woman Rahab helped the spies we sent,^[r] so protect her and the others who are inside her house. But kill everyone else in the town. ^18-19 The silver and gold and everything made of bronze and iron belong to the Lord and must be put in his treasury. Be careful to follow these instructions, because if you see something you want and take it, the Lord will destroy Israel. And it will be all your fault.^[s]

^20 (D) The priests blew their trumpets again, and the soldiers shouted as loud as they could. The walls of Jericho fell flat. Then the soldiers rushed up the hill, went straight into the town, and captured it. ^21-25 (E) They killed everyone, men and women, young and old, everyone except Rahab and the others in her house. They even killed every cow, sheep, and donkey.

Joshua said to the two men who had been spies, “Rahab kept you safe when I sent you to Jericho. We promised to protect her and her family, and we will keep that promise. Now go into her house and bring them out.”

The two men went into Rahab's house and brought her out, along with her father and mother, her brothers, and her other relatives. Rahab and her family had to stay in a place just outside the Israelite army camp.^[t] But later they were allowed to live among the Israelites, and her descendants still do.

The Israelites took the silver and gold and the things made of bronze and iron and put them with the rest of the treasure that was kept at the Lord's house.^[u] Finally, they set fire to Jericho and everything in it.

^26 (F) After Jericho was destroyed, Joshua warned the people, “Someday a man will rebuild Jericho, but the Lord will put a curse on him, and the man's oldest son will die when he starts to build the town wall. And by the time he finishes the wall and puts gates in it, all his children will be dead.”^[v]

²⁷ The Lord helped Joshua in everything he did, and Joshua was famous everywhere in Canaan.