Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, and Jericho." They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there.

As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, neither did there remain any more spirit in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.

She said to them, "Go to the mountain, lest the pursuers find you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way."

They went, and came to the mountain, and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but did not find them.

Joshua rose up early in the morning; and they moved from Shittim, and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel. They lodged there before they passed over.

Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near to it, that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not passed this way before."

The children of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, as the LORD spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, 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 who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.

It happened, when all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard how that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we had passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house, and bring out from there the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her."

They returned to Joshua, and said to him, "Do not let all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Do not make all the people to toil there, for there are only a few of them."

So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai.

Get up. Sanctify the people, and say, 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for the LORD, the God of Israel, says, "There is a devoted thing in the midst of you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you."

All the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai.

It happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

There was not a man left in Ai or Beth El who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.

He wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.

There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them.

It happened, as they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth Horon, that the LORD cast down great stones from the sky on them to Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than who the children of Israel killed with the sword.

There was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD listened to the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.

They struck all the souls who were in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them. There was no one left who breathed. He burnt Hazor with fire.

There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took all in battle.

There were none of the Anakim left in the land of the children of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, did some remain.

Now Joshua was old and well stricken in years. The LORD said to him, "You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.

Now therefore give me this hill country, of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and great and fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as the LORD spoke."

Joshua said to them, "If you are a great people, go up to the forest, and clear land for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephaim; since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you."

The whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled themselves together at Shiloh, and set up the Tent of Meeting there. The land was subdued before them.

Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD. There Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.

The border passed along from there to Luz, to the side of Luz (that is, Bethel), southward. The border went down to Ataroth Addar, by the mountain that lies on the south of Lower Beth Horon.

From there it passed along eastward to Gath Hepher, to Eth Kazin; and it went out to Rimmon which stretches to Neah.

The border turned westward to Aznoth Tabor, and went out from there to Hukkok. It reached to Zebulun on the south, and reached to Asher on the west, and to Judah at the Jordan toward the sunrise.

According to the commandment of the LORD, they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim; and he built the city, and lived there.

that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood.

These were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stands before the congregation.

When they came to the region about the Jordan, that is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to look at.

Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although there came a plague on the congregation of the LORD,

Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.