¹Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Shittim and came as far as the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel; and they lodged there before they passed over.

²It came about at the end of three days that the officers passed through the midst of the camp.

³They commanded the people, saying: When you see the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, and the priests, the Levites, carrying it, then you will set out from your place, and you will go after it.

⁴Only a distance will be between you and between it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not draw near to it, so that you may know the way you will go in it; for you have not passed over this way before, either yesterday or the day before.

⁵Joshua said to the people: Set yourselves apart, for tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders in your midst.

⁶Joshua said to the priests, saying: Lift up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they lifted up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.

⁷Yahweh said to Joshua: This day I will begin to make you great in the eyes of all Israel, so that they will know that as I was with Moses, I will be with you.

⁸And you will command the priests who carry the ark of the covenant, saying: When you come to the end of the waters of the Jordan, you will stand still in the Jordan.

⁹Joshua said to the children of Israel: Draw near here, and hear the words of Yahweh your God.

¹⁰Joshua said: By this you will know that a living God is in your midst, and that he will surely dispossess from before you the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite.

¹¹Look, the ark of the covenant of the lord of all the land is passing over before you into the Jordan.

¹²And now, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man, one man for each tribe.

¹³It will happen that when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of Yahweh, the lord of all the land, come to rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, the waters coming down from above, and they will stand as one heap.

¹⁴It happened that when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan, with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people,

¹⁵And as the bearers of the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who carried the ark were dipped at the edge of the water, and the Jordan was full over all its banks all the days of harvest,

¹⁶The waters coming down from above stood and rose up as one heap, very far away, from Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those going down to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea came to an end and were cut off; and the people passed over opposite Jericho.

¹⁷The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel was passing over on dry ground, until the whole nation had finished passing over the Jordan.