Joshua 3

1 And Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Shittim and came as far as the Jordan, and they camped there before they crossed over. 2 And after three days the officers went through the camp, [a] 3 and they charged the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord our God, and our priests and the Levites carrying it, you are to set out from your places and go after it. 4 But there is to be a distance between you and it, about three thousand feet. Take your stand there; do not come near it, so that you may know the way you are to go — for you have not gone that way before.” [b]

5 And Joshua said to the people, “Make yourselves pure for tomorrow, because tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” 6 And Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and go on ahead of the people.” And the priests took up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and went in front of the people.

7 And the Lord said to Joshua, “On this day I begin to lift you high in the sight of all the children of Israel, so that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you too. 8 And now charge the priests who carry the ark of the covenant, and say to them: ‘As soon as you step into part of the water of the Jordan, you are to stand still in the Jordan.’”

9 And Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here and hear the word of the Lord our God. 10 By this you will know that the living God is among you, and that he will surely destroy from before us the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Amorite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite. [c] 11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over the Jordan. 12 Choose out for yourselves twelve men from the children of Israel, one from each tribe.

13 And when the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth come to rest in the water of the Jordan, the water of the Jordan will fail, and the water coming down will stand still.” [d] 14 And the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan, and the priests carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord ahead of the people. 15 And as the priests carrying the ark of the covenant were entering the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord were dipped into part of the water of the Jordan — and the Jordan was full up to all its banks, as in the days of the wheat harvest — 16 the water that was coming down from above stood still. It stood as one solid heap, standing off a very long way indeed, as far as the region of Kiriath-jearim, while the water going down went down into the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, until it failed completely; and the people stood opposite Jericho. [e] 17 And the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, and all the children of Israel went across on dry ground, until all the people had finished crossing the Jordan.