Day 95 of 730

¹Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, and Jericho." They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there.

²The king of Jericho was told, "Behold, men of the children of Israel came in here tonight to spy out the land."

³The king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered into your house; for they have come to spy out all the land."

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

⁵It happened about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out. Where the men went, I do not know. Pursue them quickly; for you will overtake them."

⁶But she had brought them up to the roof, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof.

⁷The men pursued them the way to the Jordan to the fords: and as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate.

⁸Before they had lain down, she came up to them on the roof;

⁹and she said to the men, "I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away 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, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

¹¹As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, neither did there remain any more spirit in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.

¹²Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a true token;

¹³and that you will save alive my father, my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death."

¹⁴The men said to her, "Our life for yours, if you do not talk about this business of ours; and it shall be, when the Lord gives us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you."

¹⁵Then she let them down by a cord through the window; for her house was on the side of the wall, and she lived on the wall.

¹⁶She said to them, "Go to the mountain, lest the pursuers find you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way."

¹⁷The men said to her, "We will be guiltless of this your oath which you have made us to swear.

¹⁸Behold, when we come into the land, you shall bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which you did let us down by. You shall gather to yourself into the house your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household.

¹⁹It shall be that whoever goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his head, and we will be guiltless. Whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand is on him.

²⁰But if you talk about this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless of your oath which you have made us to swear."

²¹She said, "According to your words, so be it." She sent them away, and they departed. She tied the scarlet line in the window.

²²They went, and came to the mountain, and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but did not find them.

²³Then the two men returned, descended from the mountain, passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun; and they told him all that had happened to them.

²⁴They said to Joshua, "Truly the Lord has delivered into our hands all the land. Moreover, all the inhabitants of the land melt away before us."

¹Joshua rose up early in the morning; and they moved from Shittim, and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel. They lodged there before they passed over.

²It happened after three days, that the officers went through the midst of the camp;

³and they commanded the people, saying, "When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall move from your place, and follow it.

⁴Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near to it, that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not passed this way before."

⁵Joshua said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."

⁶Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people." They took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.

⁷The Lord said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

⁸You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, 'When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.'"

⁹Joshua said to the children of Israel, "Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God."

¹⁰Joshua said, "Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite out from before you.

¹¹Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into the Jordan.

¹²Now therefore take twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, for every tribe a man.

¹³It shall come to pass, when 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, that the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, even the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand in one heap."

¹⁴It happened, when the people moved from their tents to pass over the Jordan, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant being before the people,

¹⁵and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark had dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest),

¹⁶that the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people passed over right against Jericho.

¹⁷The priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan; and all Israel passed over on dry ground, until all the nation had passed completely over the Jordan.

¹Oh come, let's sing to the Lord. Let's shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!

²Let's come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let's extol him with songs!

³For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods.

⁴In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the mountains are also his.

⁵The sea is his, and he made it. His hands formed the dry land.

⁶Oh come, let's worship and bow down. Let's kneel before the Lord, our Maker,

⁷for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice!

⁸Do not harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

⁹when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.

¹⁰Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, "It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways."

¹¹Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They won't enter into my rest."

¹My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;

²So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

³Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

⁴If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:

⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

⁷He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;

⁸that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his holy ones.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

¹²to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things;

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil;

¹⁵who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths:

¹⁶To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;

¹⁷who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God:

¹⁸for her house leads down to death, her paths to the dead.

¹⁹None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life:

²⁰that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

²²But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.