Joshua 3
1 And Joshua rose up early in the
morning, and departed from Sattin; and they came as far as Jordan, and lodged
there before they crossed over. 2 And
it came to pass after three days, that the scribes
went through the camp; 3 and they
charged the people, saying, When ye shall see the ark of the covenant of the
Lord our God, and our priests and the Levites bearing it, ye shall depart from
your places, and ye shall go after it.
4 But let there be a distance between
you and it; ye shall stand as much as two thousand cubits
from it. Do not draw nigh to it, that ye may know the
way which ye are to go; for ye have not gone the way
aGr. from yesterday and the third day. A frequent Hebraism.before.
5 And Joshua said to the people,
Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow, for to-morrow the Lord will do wonders
among you. 6 And Joshua said to the
priests, Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and go before the
people: and the priests took up the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and went
before the people. 7 And the Lord said
to Joshua, This day do I begin to exalt thee before all the children of
Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so will I also be with
thee. 8 And now charge the priests
that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, As soon as ye shall enter on a part
of the water of Jordan, then ye shall stand in Jordan.
9 And Joshua said to the children of
Israel,
bGr. bring hither. sc. yourselves.Come hither, and hearken to the word of the Lord our God.
10 Hereby ye shall know that the
living God is among you, and will utterly destroy
from before our face the Chananite, and the Chettite and Pherezite, and the
Evite, and the Amorite, and the Gergesite, and the Jebusite.
11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of
the Lord of all the earth passes over Jordan.
12 Choose for yourselves twelve men
of the sons of Israel, one of each tribe.
13 And it shall come to pass, when
the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the
whole earth rest in the water of Jordan, the water of Jordan
below shall fail, and the water coming down from
above shall stop.
14 And the people removed from their
tents to cross over Jordan, and the priests bore the ark of the covenant of
the Lord before the people. 15 And
when the priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord entered upon
Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the
Lord were dipped in part of the water of Jordan; (now Jordan
cGr. its whole channel.overflowed all its banks
dGr. as on the days.about the time of wheat harvest:)
16 then the waters that came down
from above stopped; there stood one solid heap very far off, as far as
eGr. a part.the region of Kariathiarim, and
fGr. that which came down.the lower part came down to the sea of Araba, the salt sea, till it
completely failed; and the people stood opposite Jericho.
17 And the priests that bore the ark
of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry land in the midst of Jordan; and all
the children of Israel went through on dry land, until all the people had
completely gone over Jordan.