Josh 3
1
And Joshua rose up early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to
the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel; and they lodged there before they passed
over.
2
And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the midst of
the camp;
3
and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of YHWH
your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your
place, and go after it.
4
Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure:
come not near to it, that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have
not passed this way heretofore.
5
And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow YHWH will do wonders
among you.
6
And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass
over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before
the people.
7
And YHWH said to Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify you in the sight of all
Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
8
And you shall command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When
you are come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the
Jordan.
9
And Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come here, and hear the words of YHWH your
God.
10
And Joshua said, Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that
he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and
the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite.
11
Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you
into the Jordan.
12
Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, for every tribe a man.
13
And it shall come to pass, when the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the
ark of YHWH, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that
the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, even the waters that come down from above;
and they shall stand in one heap.
14
And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over the Jordan,
the priests that bare the ark of the covenant being before the people;
15
and when they that bare the ark were come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests
that bare the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (for the Jordan overflows
all its banks all the time of harvest,)
16
that the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great
way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward
the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off: and the people passed
over right against Jericho.
17
And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of YHWH stood firm on dry ground
in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel passed over on dry ground, until all the
nation were passed clean over the Jordan.