Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹When all these things have happened to you, the blessings and the curses that I have set before you, if you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you,

²and return to the LORD your God, and you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I am commanding you today,

³then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the LORD your God has scattered you.

⁴Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back.

⁵The LORD your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.

⁶Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.

⁷The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on the adversaries who took advantage of you.

⁸Then you shall again obey the LORD, observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today,

⁹and the LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors,

¹⁰when you obey the LORD your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

¹¹Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away.

¹²It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?”

¹³Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?”

¹⁴No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

¹⁵See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.

¹⁶If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them,

¹⁸I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,

²⁰loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

¹When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,

²he said to them: “I am now one hundred twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, and the LORD has told me, ‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’

³The LORD your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua also will cross over before you, as the LORD promised.

⁴The LORD will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them.

⁵The LORD will give them over to you and you shall deal with them in full accord with the command that I have given to you.

⁶Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the LORD your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”

⁷Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel: “Be strong and bold, for you are the one who will go with this people into the land that the LORD has sworn to their ancestors to give them; and you will put them in possession of it.

⁸It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

⁹Then Moses wrote down this law, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.

¹⁰Moses commanded them: “Every seventh year, in the scheduled year of remission, during the festival of booths,

¹¹when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

¹²Assemble the people — men, women, and children, as well as the aliens residing in your towns — so that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God and to observe diligently all the words of this law,

¹³and so that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”

¹⁴The LORD said to Moses, “Your time to die is near; call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting,

¹⁵and the LORD appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud; the pillar of cloud stood at the entrance to the tent.

¹⁶The LORD said to Moses, “Soon you will lie down with your ancestors. Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them.

¹⁷My anger will be kindled against them in that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them; they will become easy prey, and many terrible troubles will come upon them. In that day they will say, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not in our midst?’

¹⁸On that day I will surely hide my face on account of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.

¹⁹Now therefore write this song, and teach it to the Israelites; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be a witness for me against the Israelites.

²⁰For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised on oath to their ancestors, and they have eaten their fill and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant.

²¹And when many terrible troubles come upon them, this song will confront them as a witness, because it will not be lost from the mouths of their descendants. For I know what they are inclined to do even now, before I have brought them into the land that I promised them on oath.”

²²That very day Moses wrote this song and taught it to the Israelites.

²³Then the LORD commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and bold, for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them; I will be with you.”

²⁴When Moses had finished writing down in a book the words of this law to the very end,

²⁵Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,

²⁶“Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God; let it remain there as a witness against you.

²⁷For I know well how rebellious and stubborn you are. If you already have been so rebellious toward the LORD while I am still alive among you, how much more after my death!

²⁸Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may recite these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.

²⁹For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, turning aside from the way that I have commanded you. In time to come trouble will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”

³⁰Then Moses recited the words of this song, to the very end, in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:

¹Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

²May my teaching drop like the rain, my speech condense like the dew; like gentle rain on grass, like showers on new growth.

³For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God!

⁴The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he;

⁵yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him, a perverse and crooked generation.

⁶Do you thus repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?

⁷Remember the days of old, consider the years long past; ask your father, and he will inform you; your elders, and they will tell you.

⁸When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods;

⁹the LORD’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.

¹⁰He sustained him in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste; he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye.

¹¹As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions,

¹²the LORD alone guided him; no foreign god was with him.

¹³He set him atop the heights of the land, and fed him with produce of the field; he nursed him with honey from the crags, with oil from flinty rock;

¹⁴curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs and rams; Bashan bulls and goats, together with the choicest wheat — you drank fine wine from the blood of grapes.

¹⁵Jacob ate his fill; Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You grew fat, bloated, and gorged! He abandoned God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶They made him jealous with strange gods, with abhorrent things they provoked him.

¹⁷They sacrificed to demons, not God, to deities they had never known, to new ones recently arrived, whom your ancestors had not feared.

¹⁸You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹⁹The LORD saw it, and was jealous; he spurned his sons and daughters.

²⁰He said: I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no faithfulness.

²¹They made me jealous with what is no god, provoked me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with what is no people, provoke them with a foolish nation.

²²For a fire is kindled by my anger, and burns to the depths of Sheol; it devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³I will heap disasters upon them, spend my arrows against them:

²⁴wasting hunger, burning consumption, bitter pestilence. The teeth of beasts I will send against them, with venom of things crawling in the dust.

²⁵In the street the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers terror, for young man and woman alike, nursing child and old gray head.

²⁶I thought to scatter them and blot out the memory of them from humankind;

²⁷but I feared provocation by the enemy, for their adversaries might misunderstand and say, “Our hand is triumphant; it was not the LORD who did all this.”

²⁸They are a nation void of sense; there is no understanding in them.

²⁹If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern what the end would be.

³⁰How could one have routed a thousand, and two put a myriad to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, the LORD had given them up?

³¹Indeed their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies are fools.

³²Their vine comes from the vinestock of Sodom, from the vineyards of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters are bitter;

³³their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.

³⁴Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries?

³⁵Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; because the day of their calamity is at hand, their doom comes swiftly.

³⁶Indeed the LORD will vindicate his people, have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, neither bond nor free remaining.

³⁷Then he will say: Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,

³⁸who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their libations? Let them rise up and help you, let them be your protection!

³⁹See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god besides me. I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand.

⁴⁰For I lift up my hand to heaven, and swear: As I live forever,

⁴¹when I whet my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold on judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.

⁴²I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh — with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired enemy.

⁴³Praise, O heavens, his people, worship him, all you gods! For he will avenge the blood of his children, and take vengeance on his adversaries; he will repay those who hate him, and cleanse the land for his people.

⁴⁴Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua son of Nun.

⁴⁵When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel,

⁴⁶he said to them: “Take to heart all the words that I am giving in witness against you today; give them as a command to your children, so that they may diligently observe all the words of this law.

⁴⁷This is no trifling matter for you, but rather your very life; through it you may live long in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”

⁴⁸On that very day the LORD addressed Moses as follows:

⁴⁹“Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for a possession;

⁵⁰you shall die there on the mountain that you ascend and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin;

⁵¹because both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to maintain my holiness among the Israelites.

⁵²Although you may view the land from a distance, you shall not enter it — the land that I am giving to the Israelites.”

¹This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites before his death.

²He said: The LORD came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran. With him were myriads of holy ones; at his right, a host of his own.

³Indeed, O favorite among peoples, all his holy ones were in your charge; they marched at your heels, accepted direction from you.

⁴Moses charged us with the law, as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.

⁵There arose a king in Jeshurun, when the leaders of the people assembled — the united tribes of Israel.

⁶May Reuben live, and not die out, even though his numbers are few.

⁷And this he said of Judah: O LORD, give heed to Judah, and bring him to his people; strengthen his hands for him, and be a help against his adversaries.

⁸And of Levi he said: Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your loyal one, whom you tested at Massah, with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah;

⁹who said of his father and mother, “I regard them not”; he ignored his kin, and did not acknowledge his children. For they observed your word, and kept your covenant.

¹⁰They teach Jacob your ordinances, and Israel your law; they place incense before you, and whole burnt offerings on your altar.

¹¹Bless, O LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of his adversaries, of those that hate him, so that they do not rise again.

¹²Of Benjamin he said: The beloved of the LORD rests in safety — the High God surrounds him all day long — the beloved rests between his shoulders.

¹³And of Joseph he said: Blessed by the LORD be his land, with the choice gifts of heaven above, and of the deep that lies beneath;

¹⁴with the choice fruits of the sun, and the rich yield of the months;

¹⁵with the finest produce of the ancient mountains, and the abundance of the everlasting hills;

¹⁶with the choice gifts of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of the one who dwells on Sinai. Let these come on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

¹⁷A firstborn bull — majesty is his! His horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he gores the peoples, driving them to the ends of the earth; such are the myriads of Ephraim, such the thousands of Manasseh.

¹⁸And of Zebulun he said: Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and Issachar, in your tents.

¹⁹They call peoples to the mountain; there they offer the right sacrifices; for they suck the affluence of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.

²⁰And of Gad he said: Blessed be the enlargement of Gad! Gad lives like a lion; he tears at arm and scalp.

²¹He chose the best for himself, for there a commander’s allotment was reserved; he came at the head of the people, he executed the justice of the LORD, and his ordinances for Israel.

²²And of Dan he said: Dan is a lion’s whelp that leaps forth from Bashan.

²³And of Naphtali he said: O Naphtali, sated with favor, full of the blessing of the LORD, possess the west and the south.

²⁴And of Asher he said: Most blessed of sons be Asher; may he be the favorite of his brothers, and may he dip his foot in oil.

²⁵Your bars are iron and bronze; and as your days, so is your strength.

²⁶There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, majestic through the skies.

²⁷He subdues the ancient gods, shatters the forces of old; he drove out the enemy before you, and said, “Destroy!”

²⁸So Israel lives in safety, untroubled is Jacob’s abode in a land of grain and wine, where the heavens drop down dew.

²⁹Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread on their backs.

¹Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the LORD showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan,

²all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea,

³the Negeb, and the Plain — that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees — as far as Zoar.

⁴The LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”

⁵Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the LORD’s command.

⁶He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day.

⁷Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated.

⁸The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.

⁹Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹⁰Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.

¹¹He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land,

¹²and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

¹After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying,

²“My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites.

³Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses.

⁴From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory.

⁵No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.

⁶Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them.

⁷Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go.

⁸This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful.

⁹I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

¹⁰Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people,

¹¹“Pass through the camp, and command the people: ‘Prepare your provisions; for in three days you are to cross over the Jordan, to go in to take possession of the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess.’”

¹²To the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said,

¹³“Remember the word that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, ‘The LORD your God is providing you a place of rest, and will give you this land.’

¹⁴Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan. But all the warriors among you shall cross over armed before your kindred and shall help them,

¹⁵until the LORD gives rest to your kindred as well as to you, and they too take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. Then you shall return to your own land and take possession of it, the land that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you beyond the Jordan to the east.”

¹⁶They answered Joshua: “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.

¹⁷Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses!

¹⁸Whoever rebels against your orders and disobeys your words, whatever you command, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”

¹Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim 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.

²The king of Jericho was told, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.”

³Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come only to search out the whole land.”

⁴But the woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from.

⁵And when it was time to close the gate at dark, the men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them.”

⁶She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof.

⁷So the men pursued them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. As soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

⁸Before they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof

⁹and said to the men: “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you.

¹⁰For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

¹¹As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you. The LORD your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below.

¹²Now then, since I have dealt kindly with you, swear to me by the LORD that you in turn will deal kindly with my family. Give me a sign of good faith

¹³that you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.”

¹⁴The men said to her, “Our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the LORD gives us the land.”

¹⁵Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the outer side of the city wall and she resided within the wall itself.

¹⁶She said to them, “Go toward the hill country, so that the pursuers may not come upon you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned; then afterward you may go your way.”

¹⁷The men said to her, “We will be released from this oath that you have made us swear to you

¹⁸if we invade the land and you do not tie this crimson cord in the window through which you let us down, and you do not gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your family.

¹⁹If any of you go out of the doors of your house into the street, they shall be responsible for their own death, and we shall be innocent; but if a hand is laid upon any who are with you in the house, we shall bear the responsibility for their death.

²⁰But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be released from this oath that you made us swear to you.”

²¹She said, “According to your words, so be it.” She sent them away and they departed. Then she tied the crimson cord in the window.

²²They departed and went into the hill country and stayed there three days, until the pursuers returned. The pursuers had searched all along the way and found nothing.

²³Then the two men came down again from the hill country. They crossed over, came to Joshua son of Nun, and told him all that had happened to them.

²⁴They said to Joshua, “Truly the LORD has given all the land into our hands; moreover all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before us.”

¹Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim with all the Israelites, and they came to the Jordan. They camped there before crossing over.

²At the end of three days the officers went through the camp

³and commanded the people, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place. Follow it,

⁴so that you may know the way you should go, for you have not passed this way before. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, a distance of about two thousand cubits; do not come any nearer to it.”

⁵Then Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

⁶To the priests Joshua said, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass on in front of the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went in front of the people.

⁷The LORD said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses.

⁸You are the one who shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’”

⁹Joshua then said to the Israelites, “Draw near and hear the words of the LORD your God.”

¹⁰Joshua said, “By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites:

¹¹the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan.

¹²So now select twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.

¹³When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap.”

¹⁴When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people.

¹⁵Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water,

¹⁶the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing toward the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

¹⁷While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.

¹When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua:

²“Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe,

³and command them, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight.’”

⁴Then Joshua summoned the twelve men from the Israelites, whom he had appointed, one from each tribe.

⁵Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites,

⁶so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’

⁷then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial forever.”

⁸The Israelites did as Joshua commanded. They took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD told Joshua, carried them over with them to the place where they camped, and laid them down there.

⁹(Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.)

¹⁰The priests who bore the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan, until everything was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people crossed over in haste.

¹¹As soon as all the people had finished crossing over, the ark of the LORD, and the priests, crossed over in front of the people.

¹²The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the Israelites, as Moses had ordered them.

¹³About forty thousand armed for war crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for battle.

¹⁴On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him, as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.

¹⁵The LORD said to Joshua,

¹⁶“Command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, to come up out of the Jordan.”

¹⁷Joshua therefore commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”

¹⁸When the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet touched dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before.

¹⁹The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.

²⁰Those twelve stones, which they had taken out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal,

²¹saying to the Israelites, “When your children ask their parents in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’

²²then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel crossed over the Jordan here on dry ground.’

²³For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you crossed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we crossed over,

²⁴so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, and so that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”

¹When all the kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted, and there was no longer any spirit in them, because of the Israelites.

²At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites a second time.”

³So Joshua made flint knives, and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath-haaraloth.

⁴This is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the warriors, had died during the journey through the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt.

⁵Although all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people born on the journey through the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.

⁶For the Israelites traveled forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the warriors who came out of Egypt, perished, not having listened to the voice of the LORD. To them the LORD swore that he would not let them see the land that he had sworn to their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁷So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

⁸When the circumcising of all the nation was done, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.

⁹The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” And so that place is called Gilgal to this day.

¹⁰While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho.

¹¹On the day after the passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.

¹²The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.

¹³Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?”

¹⁴He replied, “Neither; but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and he said to him, “What do you command your servant, my lord?”

¹⁵The commander of the army of the LORD said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

¹Now Jericho was shut up inside and out because of the Israelites; no one came out and no one went in.

²The LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have handed Jericho over to you, along with its king and soldiers.

³You shall march around the city, all the warriors circling the city once. Thus you shall do for six days,

⁴with seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets.

⁵When they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and all the people shall charge straight ahead.”

⁶So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and have seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark of the LORD.”

⁷To the people he said, “Go forward and march around the city; have the armed men pass on before the ark of the LORD.”

⁸As Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the LORD went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD following them.

⁹And the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets; the rear guard came after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually.

¹⁰To the people Joshua gave this command: “You shall not shout or let your voice be heard, nor shall you utter a word, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.”

¹¹So the ark of the LORD went around the city, circling it once; and they came into the camp, and spent the night in the camp.

¹²Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD.

¹³The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD passed on, blowing the trumpets continually. The armed men went before them, and the rear guard came after the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets blew continually.

¹⁴On the second day they marched around the city once and then returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

¹⁵On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times.

¹⁶And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city.

¹⁷The city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers we sent.

¹⁸As for you, keep away from the things devoted to destruction, so as not to covet and take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it.

¹⁹But all silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are sacred to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD.”

²⁰So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat; so the people charged straight ahead into the city and captured it.

²¹Then they devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.

²²Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house, and bring the woman out of it and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.”

²³So the young men who had been spies went in and brought Rahab out, along with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all who belonged to her — they brought all her kindred out — and set them outside the camp of Israel.

²⁴They burned down the city, and everything in it; only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.

²⁵But Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, Joshua spared. Her family has lived in Israel ever since. For she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

²⁶Joshua then pronounced this oath, saying, “Cursed before the LORD be anyone who tries to build this city — this Jericho! At the cost of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest he shall set up its gates!”

²⁷So the LORD was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land.

¹But the Israelites broke faith in regard to the devoted things: Achan son of Carmi son of Zabdi son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things; and the anger of the LORD burned against the Israelites.

²Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and spied out Ai.

³Then they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Not all the people need go up; about two or three thousand men should go up and attack Ai. Since they are so few, do not make the whole people toil up there.”

⁴So about three thousand of the people went up there; and they fled before the men of Ai.

⁵The men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them, chasing them from outside the gate as far as Shebarim and killing them on the slope. The hearts of the people melted and turned to water.

⁶Then Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the ground on his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.

⁷Joshua said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Why have you brought this people across the Jordan at all, to hand us over to the Amorites so as to destroy us? Would that we had been content to settle beyond the Jordan!

⁸O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned their backs to their enemies!

⁹The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will you do for your great name?”

¹⁰The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! Why have you fallen upon your face?

¹¹Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I imposed on them. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have acted deceitfully, and they have put them among their own belongings.

¹²Therefore the Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they turn their backs to their enemies, because they have become a thing devoted for destruction themselves. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.

¹³Proceed to sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “There are devoted things among you, O Israel; you will be unable to stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.”

¹⁴In the morning therefore you shall come forward tribe by tribe. The tribe that the LORD takes shall come near by clans, the clan that the LORD takes shall come near by households, and the household that the LORD takes shall come near one by one.

¹⁵And the one who is taken as having the devoted things shall be burned with fire, together with all that he has, for having transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and for having done an outrageous thing in Israel.’”

¹⁶So Joshua rose early in the morning, and brought Israel near tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was taken.

¹⁷He brought near the clans of Judah, and the clan of the Zerahites was taken; and he brought near the clan of the Zerahites, family by family, and Zabdi was taken.

¹⁸And he brought near his household one by one, and Achan son of Carmi son of Zabdi son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.

¹⁹Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the LORD God of Israel and make confession to him. Tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

²⁰And Achan answered Joshua, “It is true; I am the one who sinned against the LORD God of Israel. This is what I did:

²¹when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. They now lie hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

²²So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent with the silver underneath.

²³They took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites; and they spread them out before the LORD.

²⁴Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan son of Zerah, with the silver, the mantle, and the bar of gold, with his sons and daughters, with his oxen, donkeys, and sheep, and his tent and all that he had; and they brought them up to the Valley of Achor.

²⁵Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD is bringing trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him to death; they burned them with fire, cast stones on them,

²⁶and raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his burning anger. Therefore that place to this day is called the Valley of Achor.

¹Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear or be dismayed; take all the fighting men with you, and go up now to Ai. See, I have handed over to you the king of Ai with his people, his city, and his land.

²You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king; only its spoil and its livestock you may take as booty for yourselves. Set an ambush against the city, behind it.”

³So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to go up against Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand warriors and sent them out by night

⁴with the command, “You shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it; do not go very far from the city, but all of you stay alert.

⁵I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. When they come out against us, as before, we shall flee from them.

⁶They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, as before.’ While we flee from them,

⁷you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city; for the LORD your God will give it into your hand.

⁸And when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, doing as the LORD has ordered; see, I have commanded you.”

⁹So Joshua sent them out; and they went to the place of ambush, and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai; but Joshua spent that night in the camp.

¹⁰In the morning Joshua rose early and mustered the people, and went up, with the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.

¹¹All the fighting men who were with him went up, and drew near before the city, and camped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai.

¹²Taking about five thousand men, he set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

¹³So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley.

¹⁴When the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the inhabitants of the city, hurried out early in the morning to the meeting place facing the Arabah to meet Israel in battle; but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

¹⁵And Joshua and all Israel made a pretense of being beaten before them, and fled in the direction of the wilderness.

¹⁶So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city.

¹⁷There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel; they left the city open, and pursued Israel.

¹⁸Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Stretch out the sword that is in your hand toward Ai; for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the sword that was in his hand toward the city.

¹⁹As soon as he stretched out his hand, the troops in ambush rose quickly out of their place and rushed forward. They entered the city, took it, and at once set the city on fire.

²⁰So when the men of Ai looked back, the smoke of the city was rising to the sky. They had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers.

²¹When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city was rising, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.

²²And the others came out from the city against them; so they were surrounded by Israelites, some on one side, and some on the other; and Israel struck them down until no one was left who survived or escaped.

²³But the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.

²⁴When Israel had finished slaughtering all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and when all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai, and attacked it with the edge of the sword.

²⁵The total of those who fell that day, both men and women, was twelve thousand — all the people of Ai.

²⁶For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the sword, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

²⁷Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their booty, according to the word of the LORD that he had issued to Joshua.

²⁸So Joshua burned Ai, and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day.

²⁹And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening; and at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, threw it down at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.

³⁰Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel,

³¹just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, “an altar of unhewn stones, on which no iron tool has been used”; and they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed offerings of well-being.

³²And there, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.

³³All Israel, alien as well as citizen, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark in front of the levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.

³⁴And afterward he read all the words of the law, blessings and curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law.

³⁵There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.

¹Now when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon — the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites — heard of this,

²they gathered together with one accord to fight Joshua and Israel.

³But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,

⁴they on their part acted with cunning: they went and prepared provisions, and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended,

⁵with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes; and all their provisions were dry and moldy.

⁶They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the Israelites, “We have come from a far country; so now make a treaty with us.”

⁷But the Israelites said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you live among us; then how can we make a treaty with you?”

⁸They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you? And where do you come from?”

⁹They said to him, “Your servants have come from a very far country, because of the name of the LORD your God; for we have heard a report of him, of all that he did in Egypt,

¹⁰and of all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, King Sihon of Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth.

¹¹So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey; go to meet them, and say to them, “We are your servants; come now, make a treaty with us.”’

¹²Here is our bread; it was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey, on the day we set out to come to you, but now, see, it is dry and moldy;

¹³these wineskins were new when we filled them, and see, they are burst; and these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.”

¹⁴So the leaders partook of their provisions, and did not ask direction from the LORD.

¹⁵And Joshua made peace with them, guaranteeing their lives by a treaty; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.

¹⁶But when three days had passed after they had made a treaty with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and were living among them.

¹⁷So the Israelites set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.

¹⁸But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders.

¹⁹But all the leaders said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we must not touch them.

²⁰This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that wrath may not come upon us, because of the oath that we swore to them.”

²¹The leaders said to them, “Let them live.” So they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, as the leaders had decided concerning them.

²²Joshua summoned them, and said to them, “Why did you deceive us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ while in fact you are living among us?

²³Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall always be slaves, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.”

²⁴They answered Joshua, “Because it was told to your servants for a certainty 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; so we were in great fear for our lives because of you, and did this thing.

²⁵And now we are in your hand: do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us.”

²⁶This is what he did for them: he saved them from the Israelites; and they did not kill them.

²⁷But on that day Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to continue to this day, in the place that he should choose.