After Moses, the servant of the LORD, had died, the LORD spoke to Nun's son Joshua, announcing to him,

Any man who rebels against your command and does not obey everything that you command him, shall be put to death; only be strong and courageous.”

And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him.

Then the two men turned back and came down from the hill country and crossed over [the Jordan] and came to Joshua the son of Nun [at Shittim], and told him everything that had happened to them.

On that day the Lord magnified and exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so they feared him [with profound awe and reverence], just as they had feared Moses all the days of his life.

And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

Now when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his drawn sword in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”

He said, “No; rather I have come now as captain of the army of the Lord.” Then Joshua fell with his face toward the earth and bowed down, and said to him, “What does my lord have to say to his servant?”

When they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall cry out with a great shout (battle cry); and the wall of the city will fall down in its place, and the people shall go up, each man [going] straight ahead [climbing over the rubble].”

And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD.

So the people shouted [the battle cry], and the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, they raised a great shout and the wall [of Jericho] fell down, so that the sons of Israel went up into the city, every man straight ahead [climbing over the rubble], and they overthrew the city.

So the Lord was with Joshua; and news of him went through all the land.

Then they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not make all the people go up [to fight]; have only about two thousand or three thousand men go up and attack Ai; do not make the entire army go up there, for they [of Ai] are few.”

Then Joshua, in great grief, went down on the earth before the ark of the Lord till the evening, and all the chiefs of Israel with him, and they put dust on their heads.

It shall be that the one who is taken with the things under the ban shall be burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.’”

So Joshua got up early in the morning, and made Israel come before him by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken;

Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him [in recognition of His righteous judgments]; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.”

Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the [royal] robe, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and everything that he had; and they brought them up to the Valley of Achor (Disaster).

Joshua said, “Why have you brought disaster on us? The Lord will bring you disaster this day.” Then all Israel stoned them [to death] with stones; afterward they burned their bodies in the fire.

Then they piled up over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor (Disaster) to this day.

Then all the fighting men who were with him went up and advanced and arrived in front of the city, and camped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a ravine between them and Ai.

Now when the king [and the people] of Ai saw it, the men of the city hurried and got up early and went out to meet Israel in battle, the king and all his people at the appointed [time and] place before the desert plain (the Arabah). But he did not know that there was an ambush against him [waiting] behind the city [on the west side].

But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

And he put the king of Ai to death, hanging him on a tree till evening: and when the sun went down, Joshua gave them orders to take his body down from the tree, and put it in the public place of the town, covering it with a great mass of stones, which is there to this day.

They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; so now, make a covenant (treaty) with us.”

They said to him, “Your servants have come from a country that is very far away because of the fame of the Lord your God; for we have heard the news about Him and all [the remarkable things] that He did in Egypt,

And it will be from the end of three days after they cut out a covenant to them, and they will hear that they are near to him, and they dwell in the midst of him.

The Gibeonites answered him, “It was clearly communicated to your servants that the Lord your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you. We greatly feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this.

And that day Joshua made them servants, cutting wood and getting water for the people and for the altar of the Lord, in the place marked out by him, to this day.

So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the men of valor.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp at Gilgal.

They did so, and brought these five [Amorite] kings out of the cave to him—the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.

When they brought these kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and told the commanders of the men of war who had gone with him, “Come up close, put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So they came forward and put their feet on the necks [of the five kings].

And Joshua took Makkedah on that day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, him and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed; he let none remain; and he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.

Joshua and all Israel with him crossed from Makkedah to Libnah and fought against Libnah.

And Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Libnah to Lachish, and they camped by it and fought against it.

Then Horam king of Gezer went up to help Lachish, and Joshua struck him and his people down until he had left him no survivor.

Then Joshua crossed from Lachish to Eglon and all Israel with him. They laid siege to it and attacked it.

Next, Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron and attacked it.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to Debir, and fought against it.

So Joshua overcame all the land, the hill-country and the South and the lowland and the mountain slopes, and all their kings; all were put to death: and every living thing he gave up to the curse, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had given him orders.

So Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp at Gilgal.

So Joshua and all the people of war with him came against them suddenly by the waters of Merom, and attacked them.

Joshua did to them as the Lord had told him; he hamstrung (disabled) their horses and set fire to their chariots.

Joshua did just what the LORD had commanded his servant Moses and just what Moses had commanded him, leaving nothing unfinished.

and the boundary of Og, king of Bashan, of the remnant of the giants, - him who dwelt in Ashtaroth and in Edrei;

Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, “You have grown old and advanced in years, and very substantial portions of the land remain to be possessed.

With him the Reubenites and the Gadites took their inheritance which Moses gave to them on the other side of Jordan from the sunrising, as Moses the servant of Jehovah gave to them:

It was only to the tribe of Levi that Moses gave no [territory as an] inheritance; the offerings by fire to the Lord, the God of Israel, are their inheritance, as He told him.

all the cities of the plateau, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon. Moses had killed him and the chiefs of Midian—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba—the princes of Sihon who lived in the land.

The Israelis also killed Beor's son Balaam, the occult practitioner, executing him with a sword as one of those killed.

The descendants of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord promised Moses the man of God at Kadesh-barnea about you and me.

I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to scout the land [of Canaan], and I brought a report back to him as it was in my heart.

Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as an inheritance.

Now to Caleb the son of Jephunneh Joshua gave a portion among the sons of Judah, as the Lord commanded him, namely, Kiriath-arba, Arba being the father of Anak (that is, Hebron).

Caleb said, “I will give Achsah my daughter as wife to the man who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it.”

And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s brother, captured it; so he gave him Achsah his daughter as a wife.

And it came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wouldest thou?

And she said to him, "Give to me a gift; you have given me the land of the Negev, and you must give to me a spring of water." And he gave to her the upper and lower spring.

And there will be a bound to the tribe of Manasseh; for he was the first-born of Joseph: to Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead; for he was a man of war, and there will be to him Gilead and Bashan.

And to Zelophehad, son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, sons were not to him, but daughters: and these the names of his daughters, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

And it will be when the sons of Israel were strong and they will give the Canaanite for tribute; and driving out, they drove him not out

And the sons of Joseph say, 'The hill is not found to us, and a chariot of iron is with every Canaanite who is dwelling in the land of the valley -- to him who is in Beth-Shean and its towns, and to him who is in the valley of Jezreel.'

But the mountain shall be to thee, for it is a forest, and thou shalt cut it down; and its out-goings were to thee; for thou shalt drive out the Canaanite, if the chariot of iron is to him; if he is strong.

As the Lord had instructed, they gave him the city he requested -- Timnath Serah in the Ephraimite hill country. He built up the city and lived in it.

So that any man who in error and without design has taken the life of another, may go in flight to them: and they will be safe places for you from him who has the right of punishment for blood.

The one who committed manslaughter should escape to one of these cities, stand at the entrance of the city gate, and present his case to the leaders of that city. They should then bring him into the city, give him a place to stay, and let him live there.

When the avenger of blood comes after him, they must not hand over to him the one who committed manslaughter, for he accidentally killed his fellow man without premeditation.

He shall live in that city until he has stood before the congregation for judgment [and if acquitted of murder he must stay there], until the death of the one who is the high priest in those days. Then the offender (manslayer) shall return to his own city and his own house from which he fled.’”

These were the towns marked out for all the children of Israel and for the man from a strange country living among them, so that anyone causing the death of another in error, might go in flight there, and not be put to death by him who has the right of punishment for blood till he had come before the meeting of the people.

But carefully obey the commands and instructions Moses the Lord's servant gave you. Love the Lord your God, follow all his instructions, obey his commands, be loyal to him, and serve him with all your heart and being!"

and with him ten leaders, one leader from each father’s household from each of the tribes of Israel; and each one was the head of his father’s household among the thousands of Israel.

That now you are turned back from the Lord? and, because you are false to him today, tomorrow his wrath will be let loose on all the people of Israel.

Did not Achan, the son of Zerah, do wrong about the cursed thing, causing wrath to come on all the people of Israel? And not on him only came the punishment of death.

that we have built for ourselves an altar to turn away from Him. May the Lord Himself hold us accountable if we intended to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it.

but to be a witness between us and you and between the generations after us, that we are to perform the service of the Lord before Him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings, so that your sons (descendants) will not say to our sons in time to come, “You have no part in the Lord.”’

We would never rebel against the Lord or turn away from Him today by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God, which is in front of His tabernacle.”

When Phinehas the priest and the community leaders and clan leaders who accompanied him heard the defense of the Reubenites, Gadites, and the Manassehites, they were satisfied.

Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, “Today we know that the Lord is among us, because you have not committed this treachery against Him. As a result, you have delivered the Israelites from the Lord’s power.”

but I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and brought him into the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous; I gave him Isaac,

And they will cry to Jehovah, and he will put darkness between you and between Egypt, and he will bring the sea upon him, and will cover him; and your eyes will see what I did in Egypt; and ye shall dwell in the desert many days.

But I did not give ear to Balaam; and so he went on blessing you; and I kept you safe from him.

Now obey the Lord and worship him with integrity and loyalty. Put aside the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt and worship the Lord.

Joshua then said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”

The people said to Joshua, "We will worship the Lord our God and obey him."

And Joshua will cut out a covenant to the people in that day and will set to him a law and a judgment in Shechem.

They buried him in his allotted territory in Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

Israel worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua's lifetime and as long as the elderly men who outlived him remained alive. These men had experienced firsthand everything the Lord had done for Israel.

Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him in Gibeah in the hill country of Ephraim, where his son Phinehas had been assigned land.