The Promised Land · c. 1406 BC
Chapter 2
Across the Jordan
Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders among you.”
For parents
At the Lord’s command, Joshua uses flint knives to circumcise all the males born in the wilderness, and they stay in camp until they heal (Joshua 5:2–8); it is told plainly, without detail. The same passage recalls that the fighting men who came out of Egypt died in the wilderness because they did not listen to the Lord (5:4–6).
got up early in the morning. He and all the set out from and came to the , and they camped there before they crossed over.
Three days later the officers went through the middle of the camp, and they gave the people their orders. “When you see the carrying the , the ark of the your God, leave your places and follow it. But stay about two thousand away from it, about three thousand feet. Don’t come any closer to it. That way you will know which way to go, because you have never been this way before.”
Joshua said to the people, “Make yourselves , because tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
Then Joshua told the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant. Cross over ahead of the people.” The priests took up the ark of the covenant and went on ahead of them.
The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to make you great in the eyes of all Israel, so that they may know I will be with you the way I was with . Command the priests who carry the ark of the covenant to stand still in the Jordan when they come to the edge of the water.”
Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.” Then he said, “This is how you’ll know that the living God is among you, and that he will surely drive the , , , , , and out of your way.
“Look! The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth goes ahead of you into the Jordan. So now take twelve men out of the of Israel, a man for each tribe. As soon as the priests carrying the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, step into the Jordan, its water will stop flowing. The water coming down the river will pile up in one heap.”
So the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant ahead of them. It was harvest time, when the Jordan overflows all its banks. The priests carrying the ark came to the Jordan, and their feet dipped into the edge of the water.
Then the water coming down from upstream stood still. It rose up in one heap a long way off, at , the city beside . The waters going down to the sea of the , the , were cut off completely. And the people crossed over near .
The priests who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan.
When the whole nation was all the way across the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua. “Take twelve men out of the people, a man from each tribe,” he said, “and give them this command: ‘Take twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm. Carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you’ll camp tonight.’”
Then Joshua called the twelve men he had chosen from the Israelites, a man from each tribe. He said to them, “Go out ahead of the ark of the Lord your God, into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you pick up a stone and put it on your shoulder, one stone for each of the tribes of Israel.
“These stones will remind you. In time to come, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off ahead of the ark of the Lord’s covenant. As it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones will help Israel remember it forever.’”
The Israelites did what Joshua commanded. They picked up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, a stone for every tribe of Israel, as the Lord had told Joshua. They carried them along to the place where they camped, and laid them down there.
Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant had stood. They are there to this day.
The priests carrying the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until all was done. Everything the Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people was carried out, just as Moses had commanded Joshua. The people hurried across. When all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the Lord crossed over with the priests while the people watched.
The men of , the men of and the half-tribe of crossed over armed, ahead of the rest of Israel, as Moses had told them. Their wives, their little ones and their livestock were to live in the land Moses had given them east of the Jordan. But their fighting men were to cross over ahead of the other tribes and help them, until the Lord had given those tribes rest and a land of their own as well. Then the fighting men could go home. About forty thousand men, armed for war, crossed over to the plains of Jericho in the Lord’s presence, ready for battle.
That day the Lord made Joshua great in the eyes of all Israel. They were in awe of him as long as he lived, just as they had been in awe of Moses.
The Lord spoke to Joshua: “The priests who carry the ark of the covenant are to come up out of the Jordan. Give them the command.”
And so Joshua gave the priests the command: “Come up out of the Jordan!”
The priests who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant climbed up out of the middle of the Jordan. As soon as their feet stepped up onto dry ground, the water of the Jordan went back to its place and overflowed all its banks again, as before.
It was the tenth day of the first month when the people came up out of the Jordan. They set up camp at , on the east border of Jericho.
At Gilgal, Joshua set up those twelve stones, the ones they took out of the Jordan.
He said to the Israelites, “In time to come, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell your children: ‘Israel crossed the Jordan here on dry ground. The Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of you until you had crossed, as the Lord your God did to the . He dried it up in front of us until we had crossed. He did it so all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord’s hand is mighty, and that you may fear the Lord your God forever.’”
There were kings of the Amorites west of the Jordan, and kings of the Canaanites by the sea. All of them heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of the Israelites until the crossing was over. Their courage melted away, and because of the Israelites they had no fight left in them.
At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make knives of , and the sons of Israel a second time.” Joshua made himself flint knives, and he circumcised the sons of Israel at a place called the hill of the foreskins.
This is why Joshua circumcised them. All the males who came out of , all the fighting men, had died in the wilderness along the way. Everyone who came out had been circumcised. But no one born along the way, as they traveled through the wilderness from Egypt, had been circumcised.
The Israelites walked in the wilderness for forty years, until the whole nation had died: all the fighting men who came out of Egypt. They died because they had not listened to the Lord’s voice. The Lord had sworn they would never see the land he had promised their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Joshua circumcised their sons, whom the Lord had raised up to take their place. No one had circumcised them on the journey.
When they had finished circumcising the whole nation, they stayed in their places in the camp until they were healed.
Then the Lord told Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the shame of Egypt from you.” That is why the place has been called Gilgal to this day. The name sounds like the Hebrew word for “roll”.
The Israelites made their camp at Gilgal. When evening came on the fourteenth day of the month, they celebrated the there in the plains of Jericho.
The very next day after the Passover, they ate food grown in the land: flat bread made without yeast, and roasted grain.
The stopped the day after they had eaten food from the land. The Israelites had no more manna, but that year they ate the crops of the land of .
When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up, and there in front of him stood a man with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our enemies?”
“No,” he said. “I have come now as commander of the Lord’s army.”
Joshua fell face down on the ground and worshiped. “What does my lord have to say to me?” he asked.
The commander of the Lord’s army told Joshua, “Take off your sandals, because the place you are standing on is holy.” Joshua did so.