No one will stand before you all the days of your life. [Just] as I was with Moses, [so] will I be with you; I will not fail you, and I will not forsake you.

Only be strong and very courageous {to observe diligently the whole law} that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn aside from it, [to] the right or left, so that you may succeed {wherever you go}.

The scroll of this law will not depart from your mouth; you will meditate on it day and night so that {you may observe diligently all that is written} in it. For then you will succeed [in] your ways and prosper.

Did I not command you? Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you {wherever you go}."

Whoever {rebels against your orders} and does not obey your words according to what you commanded us will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous."

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two men from Acacia Grove [as] spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name [was] Rahab, and {spent the night} there.

But the woman took the two men and hid them. And she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they [were] from.

And when [it was time] to shut the gate {for the night}, the men left, and I do not know where they went. Chase after them quickly, for you may catch up [to] them."

And the men said to her, "{Our lives for yours}. If you do not report this business of ours, {we will show you loyalty and faithfulness} when Yahweh gives us the land."

And she said to them, "Go to the mountain, so that the pursuers will not find you, and hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers return, and afterward you may go {on your way}."

They departed and came to the mountain, and they stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers searched {all along the way} but did not find [them].

Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Acacia Grove. And they came up to the Jordan, he and all the {Israelites}, and they spent the night there before they crossed [over].

[But] there will be a distance between you and it of about two thousand cubits in measurement. Do not come near it, so that you may know the way that you must go, for you have not passed on [this] way {before}."

For all the people who left were circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness {on the journey} [after] they left from Egypt were not circumcised.

For forty years the {Israelites} traveled in the wilderness until all the nation, the warriors that left Egypt, perished, because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. To them Yahweh swore that they would not see the land that he swore to their ancestors to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And it was their children [whom] he raised in their place that Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised {on the journey}.

But Joshua commanded the people, saying, "You will not shout, and you will not let your voice be heard; a word will not go out from your mouth until the day I say to you 'Shout!' Then you will shout."

And the ark of Yahweh went around the city, {circling once}, and they came [into] the camp and spent the night in the camp.

As for you, keep [away] from the things devoted to destruction so that you do not take them and bring about your own destruction, making the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it.

And they returned to Joshua and said to him, "Do not let all the people go up and attack Ai; [only] two or three thousand men should go up because they [are] few. Do not make all the people weary [up] there."

And Joshua said to Achan, "My son, please, give glory to Yahweh the God of Israel, and give him a doxology in court. Tell me, please, what you have done; do not hide [it] from me."

Then Yahweh said to Joshua, "Do not fear or be dismayed. Take {all the fighting men} with you {and go up immediately to Ai}. Look, I am giving into your hand the king of Ai, his city, and his land.

So Joshua and {all the fighting men} went up immediately to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand of the best fighting men and sent them [by] night.

And he commanded them, saying, "Look, you are to lay an ambush against the city from behind. Do not go very far from the city and be ready.

So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the [place of the] ambush, and they sat between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai; but Joshua spent the night {with the people}.

So they stationed the forces; all the army [was] north of the city while {the rear guard was west}. But Joshua went that night to the middle of the valley.

When the king of Ai saw [this], the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out to meet Israel for battle--he and all his army--to the meeting place before the Arabah. He did not know that [there was] an ambush for him behind the city.

Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel; they left the city open and pursued after Israel.

For Joshua did not draw back his hand that was stretched out with the sword until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

There was not a word from all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before the assembly of all Israel, and the women, the little children, and the traveling foreigners among them.

So the leaders took from their provisions, but {they did not ask direction from Yahweh}.

But the {Israelites} did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by Yahweh the God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured {against their leaders}.

This we will do to them: [we will] let them live so that wrath will not be on us because of the oath we swore to them."

So he did this to them: he saved them from the hand of the {Israelites}, and they did not kill them.

And the men of Gibeon sent [word] to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal, saying, "{Do not abandon} your servant. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country have gathered against us."

And Yahweh said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them, for I have given them into your hand; {no one will withstand you}.

Joshua came upon them suddenly {by marching up} all night from Gilgal.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until [the] nation took vengeance [on] its enemies. Is it not written in the scroll of Jashar? The sun stood still in the middle of the heaven and was not in haste to set for about a full day.

There has not been a day like this before it or after, that Yahweh listened to the voice of man; for Yahweh fought for Israel.

But do not stay [there]; pursue after your enemies and attack them from the rear. Do not allow them to go into their cities, for Yahweh your God has given them into your hand."

And Joshua said to them, "Do not be afraid or dismayed! Be strong and bold, for thus Yahweh will do to all your enemies whom you [are] about to fight.

Joshua captured Makkedah on that day, and he struck it and its king with {the edge of the sword}; he utterly destroyed it and everyone that was in it. He did not leave behind a survivor. So he did to the king of Makkedah just as he did to the king of Jericho.

And Yahweh said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid because of their presence, for tomorrow at this time I [will] hand them over slain to Israel; you will hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire."

Israel did not burn the cities standing on their mounds, except Hazor alone, [which] Joshua burned.

There was not a city that made peace with the {Israelites} besides the Hivites and the inhabitants of Gibeon--{all were taken in battle}.

But the {Israelites} did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites; Geshur and Maacah live among Israel to this day.

Only the tribe of Levites Moses did not give an inheritance; the offerings made by fire to Yahweh the God of Israel [are] their inheritance, just as he promised to them.

But to the tribe of Levi Moses did not give an inheritance; Yahweh the God of Israel, he [is] their inheritance, just as {he promised them}.

For the descendants of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, and they did not give a plot of ground to the Levites in the land, only cities to live [in], with their pastureland for their flocks and for their goods.

But they did not drive out the Canananites who were dwelling in Gezer, and so the Canaanites live in the midst of Ephraim to this day, but they became forced laborers.

But the descendants of Manasseh were not able to take possession of these towns; the Canaanites were determined to live in this land.

And the descendants of Joseph said, "The hill country is not enough for us, and all of the Canaanites living in the land of the valley [have] chariots of iron, those in Beth-shean and its villages, and those in the Jezreel Valley."

And Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, "You are many people and have great power; you will not have one allotment [only];

And seven tribes remained among the {Israelites} who had not been apportioned their inheritance.

And if the avenger of blood pursues after him, they will not hand over the killer into his hand, because he killed his neighbor unintentionally, and {he did not hate him previously}.

These were the cities designated for all the {Israelites}, and for the foreigners dwelling among them, for anyone that kills a person unintentionally to flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, {until there is a trial} before the congregation.

you have not forsaken your kinsmen these many days, up to this day, and you have observed the obligation of the command of Yahweh your God.

[Is] not the sin of Peor {enough for us}, from which we have not cleansed ourselves today, and for which a plague came to the congregation of Yahweh,

if, however, the land of your property [is] unclean, cross [over] to the land of Yahweh's property, where Yahweh's tabernacle resides, and take possession among us. But you must not rebel against Yahweh or against us by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of Yahweh our God.

Did not Achan son of Zerah commit treachery with devoted things, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? {And he alone} did not perish because of his iniquity.'"

"Yahweh, God of gods! Yahweh, God of gods knows. And let Israel itself know, if [it was] in rebellion or treachery against Yahweh, do not spare us this day

So we said, 'Let us build immediately for ourselves an altar, not for burnt offerings or for sacrifices;

instead, it [is] a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us for performing the serving of Yahweh in his presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and fellowship offerings; so that your children may not say in the future to our children, "You have no portion in Yahweh." '

And we thought, if they say to us and to our children in the future, we can say, 'Look at this replica of the altar of Yahweh, which our ancestors made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices; rather, it [is] a witness between us and you.'

Phinehas the priest, son of Eleazar, said to the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, "Today we know that Yahweh [is] among us, because you have not committed this treachery against Yahweh. Therefore you have rescued the {Israelites} from the hand of Yahweh."

{The report satisfied the Israelites}; they blessed God, and they did not speak of going up for battle against them to destroy the land in which the descendants of Reuben and Gad were living.

Be very strong to observe carefully all that is written in the scroll of the law of Moses so as not to turn aside from it, [to] the right or left,

so as not to go among these remaining nations with you; {do not profess} the name of their gods, and do not swear by them, serve them, or {bow down to them}.

know for certain that Yahweh your God {will not continue to drive out} these nations from before you; they will be for you a snare and a trap, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that Yahweh your God has given to you.

Look! {I am about to die}, and you know in all your hearts and souls that not one thing {failed} from all the good things that Yahweh your God promised concerning you; everything {has been fulfilled}; {not one thing failed}.

but I was not willing to listen to Balaam, and he richly blessed you. So I rescued you from his hand,

I sent before you [the] hornet and they drove out before you two kings of the Amorites; [but] not by your sword or bow.

I gave to you a land that you have not labored on, and cities that you have not built, and you live in them; you eat [from] vineyards and olive groves that you have not planted.'

But Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve Yahweh, for he [is] a holy and jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

And Joshua said to all the people, "Look, this stone will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of Yahweh that he spoke with us. It will be as a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God."