The Living Bible (70 page)

Joshua
4

When all the people were safely across, the Lord said to Joshua,
^2-3
 “Tell the twelve men chosen for a special task, one from each tribe, each to take a stone from where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan, and to carry them out and pile them up as a monument at the place where you camp tonight.”

    
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 So Joshua summoned the twelve men
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 and told them, “Go out into the middle of the Jordan where the Ark is. Each of you is to carry out a stone on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes.
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 We will use them to build a monument so that in the future, when your children ask, ‘What is this monument for?’
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 you can tell them, ‘It is to remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of God went across!’ The monument will be a permanent reminder to the people of Israel of this amazing miracle.”

    
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 So the men did as Joshua told them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan River—one for each tribe, just as the Lord had commanded Joshua. They carried them to the place where they were camped for the night and constructed a monument there.
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 Joshua also built another monument of twelve stones in the middle of the river, at the place where the priests were standing; and it is there to this day.
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 The priests who were carrying the Ark stood in the middle of the river until all these instructions of the Lord, which had been given to Joshua by Moses, had been carried out. Meanwhile, the people had hurried across the riverbed,
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 and when everyone was over, the people watched the priests carry the Ark up out of the riverbed.

    
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 The troops of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh—fully armed as Moses had instructed, and forty thousand strong—led the other tribes of the Lord’s army across to the plains of Jericho.

    
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 It was a tremendous day for Joshua! The Lord made him great in the eyes of all the people of Israel, and they revered him as much as they had Moses and respected him deeply all the rest of his life.
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 For it was Joshua who, at the Lord’s command, issued the orders to the priests carrying the Ark.

    
“Come up from the riverbed,” the Lord now told him to command them.

    
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 So Joshua issued the order.
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 And as soon as the priests came out, the water poured down again as usual and overflowed the banks of the river as before!
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 This miracle occurred on the 25th of March.
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That day the entire nation crossed the Jordan River and camped in Gilgal at the eastern edge of the city of Jericho;
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 and there the twelve stones from the Jordan were piled up as a monument.

    
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 Then Joshua explained again the purpose of the stones: “In the future,” he said, “when your children ask you why these stones are here and what they mean,
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 you are to tell them that these stones are a reminder of this amazing miracle—that the nation of Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground!
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 Tell them how the Lord our God dried up the river right before our eyes and then kept it dry until we were all across! It is the same thing the Lord did forty years ago
*
at the Red Sea!
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 He did this so that all the nations of the earth will realize that Jehovah is the mighty God, and so that all of you will worship him forever.”

Joshua
5

When the nations west of the Jordan River—the Amorites and Canaanites who lived along the Mediterranean coast—heard that the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, their courage melted away completely and they were paralyzed with fear.

    
^2-3
 The Lord then told Joshua to set aside a day to circumcise the entire male population of Israel. (It was the second time in Israel’s history that this was done.) The Lord instructed them to manufacture flint knives for this purpose. The place where the circumcision rite took place was named “The Hill of the Foreskins.”
^4-5
 The reason for this second circumcision ceremony was that although when Israel left Egypt all of the men who had been old enough to bear arms had been circumcised, that entire generation had died during the years in the wilderness, and none of the boys born since that time had been circumcised.
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 For the nation of Israel had traveled back and forth across the wilderness for forty years until all the men who had been old enough to bear arms when they left Egypt were dead; they had not obeyed the Lord, and he vowed that he wouldn’t let them enter the land he had promised to Israel—a land that “flowed with milk and honey.”
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 So now Joshua circumcised their children—the men who had grown up to take their fathers’ places.

    
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 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have ended your shame of not being circumcised.”
*
So the place where this was done was called Gilgal (meaning, “to end”
*
), and is still called that today. After the ceremony the entire nation rested in camp until the raw flesh of their wounds had been healed.

    
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 While they were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover during the evening of April first.
*
^11-12
 The next day they began to eat from the gardens and grain fields which they invaded, and they made unleavened bread. The following day no manna fell, and it was never seen again! So from that time on they lived on the crops of Canaan.

    
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 As Joshua was sizing up the city of Jericho, a man appeared nearby with a drawn sword. Joshua strode over to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”

    
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 “I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Lord’s army,” he replied.

    
Joshua fell to the ground before him and worshiped him and said, “Give me your commands.”

    
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 “Take off your shoes,” the Commander told him, “for this is holy ground.” And Joshua did.

Joshua
6

The gates of Jericho were kept tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelis; no one was allowed to go in or out.

    
²
 But the Lord said to Joshua, “Jericho and its king and all its mighty warriors are already defeated, for I have given them to you!
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 Your entire army is to walk around the city once a day for six days, followed by seven priests walking ahead of the Ark, each carrying a trumpet made from a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to walk around the city seven times, with the priests blowing their trumpets.
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 Then, when they give one long, loud blast, all the people are to give a mighty shout, and the walls of the city will fall down; then move in upon the city from every direction.”

    
^6-9
 So Joshua summoned the priests and gave them their instructions: the armed men would lead the procession, followed by seven priests blowing continually on their trumpets. Behind them would come the priests carrying the Ark, followed by a rear guard.

    
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 “Let there be complete silence except for the trumpets,” Joshua commanded. “Not a single word from any of you until I tell you to shout; then
shout!”

    
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 The Ark was carried around the city once that day, after which everyone returned to the camp again and spent the night there.
^12-14
 At dawn the next morning they went around again and returned again to the camp. They followed this pattern for six days.

    
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 At dawn of the seventh day they started out again, but this time they went around the city not once, but seven times.
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 The seventh time, as the priests blew a long, loud trumpet blast, Joshua yelled to the people,
“Shout!
The Lord has given us the city!”

    
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 (He had told them previously, “Kill everyone except Rahab the prostitute and anyone in her house, for she protected our spies.
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 Don’t take any loot, for everything is to be destroyed. If it isn’t, disaster will fall upon the entire nation of Israel.
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 But all the silver and gold and the utensils of bronze and iron will be dedicated to the Lord and must be brought into his treasury.”)

    
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 So when the people heard the trumpet blast, they shouted as loud as they could. And suddenly the walls of Jericho crumbled and fell before them, and the people of Israel poured into the city from every side and captured it!
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 They destroyed everything in it—men and women, young and old; oxen; sheep; donkeys—everything.

    
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 Meanwhile Joshua had said to the two spies, “Keep your promise. Go and rescue the prostitute and everyone with her.”

    
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 The young men found her and rescued her, along with her father, mother, brothers, and other relatives who were with her. Arrangements were made for them to live outside the camp of Israel.
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 Then the Israelis burned the city and everything in it except that the silver and gold and the bronze and iron utensils were kept for the Lord’s treasury.
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 Thus Joshua saved Rahab the prostitute and her relatives who were with her in the house, and they still live among the Israelites because she hid the spies sent to Jericho by Joshua.

    
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 Then Joshua declared a terrible curse upon anyone who might rebuild Jericho, warning that when the foundation was laid, the builder’s oldest son would die, and when the gates were set up, his youngest son would die.
*

    
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 So the Lord was with Joshua, and his name became famous everywhere.