“Moses My servant is dead. Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan to the land I am giving the Israelites.

The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelite men have come here tonight to investigate the land.”

Joshua started early the next morning and left the Acacia Grove with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan and stayed there before crossing.

Then Joshua told the Israelites, “Come closer and listen to the words of the Lord your God.”

So Joshua summoned the 12 men he had selected from the Israelites, one man for each tribe,

and said to them, “Go across to the ark of the Lord your God in the middle of the Jordan. Each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each of the Israelite tribes,

you should tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the Lord’s covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan’s waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites.”

The Israelites did just as Joshua had commanded them. The 12 men took stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each of the Israelite tribes, just as the Lord had told Joshua. They carried them to the camp and set them down there.

The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh went in battle formation in front of the Israelites, as Moses had instructed them.

and he said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’

When all the Amorite kings across the Jordan to the west and all the Canaanite kings near the sea heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, they lost heart and their courage failed because of the Israelites.

At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelite men again.”

So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelite men at Gibeath-haaraloth.

For the Israelites wandered in the wilderness 40 years until all the nation’s men of war who came out of Egypt had died off because they did not obey the Lord. So the Lord vowed never to let them see the land He had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

While the Israelites camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they kept the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month.

And the day after they ate from the produce of the land, the manna ceased. Since there was no more manna for the Israelites, they ate from the crops of the land of Canaan that year.

Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites—no one leaving or entering.

The Israelites, however, were unfaithful regarding the things set apart for destruction. Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set apart, and the Lord’s anger burned against the Israelites.

This is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies. They will turn their backs and run from their enemies, because they have been set apart for destruction. I will no longer be with you unless you remove from you what is set apart.

They took the things from inside the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and spread them out in the Lord’s presence.

When the king of Ai saw the Israelites, the men of the city hurried and went out early in the morning so that he and all his people could engage Israel in battle at a suitable place facing the Arabah. But he did not know there was an ambush waiting for him behind the city.

Then men in ambush came out of the city against them, and the men of Ai were trapped between the Israelite forces, some on one side and some on the other. They struck them down until no survivor or fugitive remained,

just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used. Then they offered burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings on it.

There on the stones, Joshua copied the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of the Israelites.

So the Israelites set out and reached the Gibeonite cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.

But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the community had sworn an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. Then the whole community grumbled against the leaders.

This is what Joshua did to them: he delivered them from the hands of the Israelites, and they did not kill them.

“Come up and help me. We will attack Gibeon, because they have made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.”

As they fled before Israel, the Lord threw large hailstones on them from the sky along the descent of Beth-horon all the way to Azekah, and they died. More of them died from the hail than the Israelites killed with the sword.

On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”

So Joshua and the Israelites finished inflicting a terrible slaughter on them until they were destroyed, although a few survivors ran away to the fortified cities.

The people returned safely to Joshua in the camp at Makkedah. And no one dared to threaten the Israelites.

The Israelites plundered all the spoils and cattle of these cities for themselves. But they struck down every person with the sword until they had annihilated them, leaving no one alive.

No city made peace with the Israelites except the Hivites who inhabited Gibeon; all of them were taken in battle.

No Anakim were left in the land of the Israelites, except for some remaining in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod.

The Israelites struck down the following kings of the land and took possession of their land beyond the Jordan to the east and from the Arnon Valley to Mount Hermon, including all the Arabah eastward:

Moses the Lord’s servant and the Israelites struck them down. And Moses the Lord’s servant gave their land as an inheritance to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

Joshua and the Israelites struck down the following kings of the land beyond the Jordan to the west, from Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, which ascends toward Seir (Joshua gave their land as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel according to their allotments:

all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, all the Sidonians.

I will drive them out before the Israelites, only distribute the land as an inheritance for Israel, as I have commanded you.

but the Israelites did not drive out the Geshurites and Maacathites. So Geshur and Maacath live in Israel to this day.

Along with those the Israelites put to death, they also killed the diviner, Balaam son of Beor, with the sword.

The Israelites received these portions that Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the families of the Israelite tribes gave them in the land of Canaan.

So the Israelites did as the Lord commanded Moses, and they divided the land.

However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they imposed forced labor on the Canaanites but did not drive them out completely.

The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh where it set up the tent of meeting there; the land had been subdued by them.

Seven tribes among the Israelites were left who had not divided up their inheritance.

So Joshua said to the Israelites, “How long will you delay going out to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, gave you?

Joshua cast lots for them at Shiloh in the presence of the Lord where he distributed the land to the Israelites according to their divisions.

When they had finished distributing the land into its territories, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun an inheritance among them.

These were the portions that Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the families distributed to the Israelite tribes by lot at Shiloh in the Lord’s presence at the entrance to the tent of meeting. So they finished dividing up the land.

“Tell the Israelites: Select your cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses,

These are the cities appointed for all the Israelites and foreigners among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there and not die at the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the assembly.

The heads of the Levite families approached Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the families of the Israelite tribes.

So the Israelites, by the Lord’s command, gave the Levites these cities with their pasturelands from their inheritance.

The Israelites gave these cities with their pasturelands around them to the Levites by lot, as the Lord had commanded through Moses.

The Israelites gave these cities by name from the tribes of the descendants of Judah and Simeon

The Israelites gave them:

Shechem, the city of refuge for the one who commits manslaughter, with its pasturelands in the hill country of Ephraim, Gezer with its pasturelands,

Within the Israelite possession there were 48 cities in all with their pasturelands for the Levites.

The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh left the Israelites at Shiloh in the land of Canaan to return to their own land of Gilead, which they took possession of according to the Lord’s command through Moses.

Then the Israelites heard it said, “Look, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of Canaan at the region of the Jordan, on the Israelite side.”

When the Israelites heard this, the entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh to go to war against them.

The Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead.

The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh answered the leaders of the Israelite clans,

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.”

Then Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the Reubenites and Gadites in the land of Gilead to the Israelites in the land of Canaan and brought back a report to them.

The Israelites were pleased with the report, and they praised God. They spoke no more about going to war against them to ravage the land where the Reubenites and Gadites lived.

Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the parcel of land Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for 100 qesitahs. It was an inheritance for Joseph’s descendants.