No one will be victorious against you for the rest of your life. I'll be with you just like I was with Moses I'll neither fail you nor abandon you.

"Be strong and courageous, because you'll be leading this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors.

This set of instructions is not to cease being a part of your conversations. Meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to carry out everything that's written in it, for then you'll prosper and succeed.

"Go through the camp," he said, "and command the people, "Prepare provisions for yourselves, because within three days you'll be crossing the Jordan River to take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you so go get it!'"

until the LORD gives relief to your relatives, as he did to you. Then they'll take the land that the LORD your God is giving them as their inheritance. You'll return to the land of your heritage and receive the inheritance that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the east side of the Jordan River, in the direction of the sunrise."

"We'll do everything that you commanded," they replied. "We'll go wherever you send us.

We'll listen and obey you in everything, just like we did with Moses. Only may the LORD your God be with you, just as he was with Moses.

Now therefore, since I've treated you so kindly, please swear in the name of the LORD that you'll also be kind to my father's household by giving me this sure sign:

So the men told her, "Our life for yours even to death if you don't betray this mission of ours. Then when the LORD gives us this land, we'll treat you graciously and faithfully."

The men replied, "We'll be free from our commitment to you to which you've obligated us

Everyone who leaves through the doors of your house into the street will be responsible for his own death, but we'll be responsible for anyone who remains with you in the house if even so much as a hand is laid on him.

But if you report this incident, we'll be free from the oath to which you've made us swear."

At this point, the LORD told Joshua, "Today I'm going to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so they'll be sure that I'm going to be with you just as I was with Moses.

Joshua continued, "This is how you'll know that the living God really is among you: he's going to remove the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites right in front of you.

When the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD, the Lord of the whole earth, touch the water in the Jordan River, the water that feeds the Jordan will be cut off from above and they'll stand still in a single location."

then you'll say to them, "Because the waters of the Jordan River were cut off in front of the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan River, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.' So these stones will become a memorial to the Israelis forever."

Now as for you, everything has been turned over for destruction. Don't covet or take any of these things. Otherwise, you'll make the camp of Israel itself an object worthy of destruction, and bring trouble on it.

Then Joshua made everyone take the following oath at that time. He said: "Cursed in the presence of the LORD is the man who restores and rebuilds this city of Jericho! He will lay its foundation at the cost of his firstborn, and at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates."

"Lord GOD," Joshua asked, "Why have you brought this people across the Jordan River? To hand us over to the Amorites so we'll be destroyed? Wouldn't it have been better for us to be content to settle on the other side of the Jordan?

I and all of the army with me will advance upon the city. When they come out after us like they did before, we'll run away from them.

They'll come after us until we've drawn them away from the city, because they'll say, "They're running away from us just like they did before.' While we're running away from them,

just the way Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelis in the Book of the Law of Moses: ""an altar of uncut stones that hasn't been worked with iron tools"" and they offered burnt offerings to the LORD on it, along with peace offerings.

There Joshua inscribed on stones a copy of the Law of Moses that Moses had presented to the Israelis.

Afterwards, Joshua read all the words of the Law both the blessings and the curses according to everything written in the Book of the Law.

Eventually all the kings who reigned in the hill country across the Jordan River and in the low-lying coastlands of the Mediterranean Sea facing Lebanon heard about this. So the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites

So this is what we'll do to them: we'll let them live, so that wrath won't come upon us because of the oath that we swore to them."

but the hill country will also belong to you. Even though it's a forest, you will clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. You'll drive out the Canaanites, even though they have iron chariots and even though they're strong."

After this, the entire assembly of the Israelis gathered together at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there, where the land lay conquered before them.

Appoint three men from each tribe and I'll send them. They'll begin to go through the land and record a description of it, categorized according to their inheritance, and then they'll report back to me.

They'll divide it seven ways. Judah will stay in its territory on the south and the house of Joseph will remain in its territory on the north.

Lay out the land in seven divisions, then bring your report here to me. I will then cast lots in the presence of the LORD our God.

Only be very careful to keep the commands and the Law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you that is, to love the LORD your God, to follow in all of his ways, to keep his commands, to stay close to him, and to serve him with all your heart and soul."

Stand very strong, then, so you can obey and carry out everything written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning neither to the right nor to the left of it.

He wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God, took a large stone, moved it under the shade of the oak tree that was near the sanctuary of the LORD,