¹⁰Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, ¹¹“Pass through the camp, and command the people, ‘Prepare your provisions; for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to take possession of the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess.’”

¹²And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manas'seh Joshua said, ¹³“Remember the word which 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 cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brethren and shall help them, ¹⁵until the LORD gives rest to your brethren as well as to you, and they also take possession of the land which the LORD your God is giving them; then you shall return to the land of your possession, and shall possess it, the land which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.” ¹⁶And they 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 commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage.”

⁸Before they lay down, 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 the fear of you has fallen upon 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 Am'orites that were beyond the Jordan, to Si'hon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. ¹¹And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any man, because of you; for the LORD your God is he who is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. ¹²Now then, swear to me by the LORD that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign, ¹³and save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” ¹⁴And the 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 built into the city wall, so that she dwelt in the wall. ¹⁶And she said to them, “Go into the hills, lest the pursuers meet you; and 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 guiltless with respect to this oath of yours which you have made us swear. ¹⁸Behold, when we come into the land, you shall bind this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down; and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. ¹⁹If any one goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we shall be guiltless; but if a hand is laid upon any one who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. ²⁰But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath which you have made us swear.” ²¹And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away, and they departed; and she bound the scarlet cord in the window.

²²They departed, and went into the hills, and remained there three days, until the pursuers returned; for the pursuers had made search all along the way and found nothing. ²³Then the two men came down again from the hills, and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun; and they told him all that had befallen them. ²⁴And they said to Joshua, “Truly the LORD has given all the land into our hands; and moreover all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of us.”

⁷And the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. ⁸And you shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’” ⁹And Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God.” ¹⁰And Joshua said, “Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hi'vites, the Per'izzites, the Gir'gashites, the Am'orites, and the Jeb'usites. ¹¹Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is to pass over before you into the Jordan. ¹²Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man. ¹³And when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be stopped from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.”

¹⁴So, when the people set out from their tents, to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, ¹⁵and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), ¹⁶the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap far off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zar'ethan, and those flowing down toward the sea of the Ar'abah, the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off; and the people passed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷And while all Israel were passing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.*

⁸And the men of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel, as the LORD told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. ⁹And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst 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. ¹⁰For the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst 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 passed over in haste; ¹¹and when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the LORD and the priests passed over before the people. ¹²The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manas'seh passed over armed before the sons of Israel, as Moses had bidden them; ¹³about forty thousand ready armed for war passed over before the LORD for battle, to the plains of Jericho. 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.

¹⁵And the 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.” ¹⁸And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up on 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 encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. ²⁰And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. ²¹And he said to the sons of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²²then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ ²³For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, ²⁴so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty; that you may fear the LORD your God for ever.”

²At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.” ³So Joshua made flint knives, and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gib'eath-haar'aloth.^{a 4}And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt. ⁵Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people that were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. ⁶For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the nation, the men of war that came forth out of Egypt, perished, because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD; to them the LORD swore that he would not let them see the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁷So it was their children, whom he raised up in their stead, 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 till they were healed. ⁹And the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal^b to this day.

¹⁰While the sons of Israel were encamped in Gilgal they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. ¹¹And on the next day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. ¹²And the manna ceased on the next day, when they ate of the produce of the land; and the sons of Israel had manna no more, but ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

¹³When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood before him with his drawn sword in his hand; and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” ¹⁴And he said, “No; 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 said to him, “What does my lord bid his servant?” ¹⁵And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Put off your shoes from your feet; for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

⁸And as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing 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, and the rear guard came after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. ¹⁰But Joshua commanded the people, “You shall not shout or let your voice be heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then you shall shout.” ¹¹So he caused the ark of the LORD to compass the city, going about 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. ¹³And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD passed on, blowing the trumpets continually; and the armed men went before them, and the rear guard came after the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets blew continually. ¹⁴And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days.

¹⁵On the seventh day they rose early at the dawn of day, 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. ¹⁷And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction;* only Ra'hab the harlot and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers that we sent. ¹⁸But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction, and bring 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 trumpet, the people raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. ²¹Then they utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.

²²And Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out from it the woman, and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.” ²³So the young men who had been spies went in, and brought out Ra'hab, and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her; and they brought all her kindred, and set them outside the camp of Israel. ²⁴And they burned the city with fire, and all within it; only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. ²⁵But Ra'hab the harlot, and her father’s household, and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive; and she dwelt in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

²⁶Joshua laid an oath upon them at that time, saying, “Cursed before the LORD be the man that rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho.

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

²Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-a'ven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and spied out Ai. ³And they returned to Joshua, and said to him, “Let not all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai; do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are but few.” ⁴So about three thousand went up there from the people; and they fled before the men of Ai, ⁵and the men of Ai killed about thirty-six men of them, and chased them before the gate as far as Sheb'arim, and slew them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

⁶Then Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads. ⁷And Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord GOD, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Am'orites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! ⁸O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! ⁹For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth; and what will you do for your great name?”

¹⁰The LORD said to Joshua, “Arise, why have you thus fallen upon your face? ¹¹Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant which I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, and lied, and put them among their own stuff. ¹²Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become a thing for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. ¹³Up, sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the LORD, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in the midst of you, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies, until you take away the devoted things from among you.” ¹⁴In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes; and the tribe which the LORD takes shall come near by families; and the family which the LORD takes shall come near by households; and the household which the LORD takes shall come near man by man. ¹⁵And he who is taken with the devoted things shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he has done a shameful thing in Israel.’”

¹⁶So Joshua rose early in the morning, and brought Israel near tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was taken; ¹⁷and he brought near the families of Judah, and the family of the Ze'rahites was taken; and he brought near the family of the Zerahites man by man, and Zabdi was taken; ¹⁸and he brought near his household man by man, and A'chan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Ze'rah of the tribe of Judah, was taken. ¹⁹Then Joshua said to A'chan, “My son, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and render praise to him; and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.” ²⁰And A'chan answered Joshua, “Of a truth I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I did: ²¹when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shi'nar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them, and took them; and behold, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

²²So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and behold, it was hidden in his tent with the silver underneath. ²³And they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the sons of Israel; and they laid them down before the LORD. ²⁴And Joshua and all Israel with him took A'chan the son of Ze'rah, and the silver and the mantle and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters, and his oxen and donkeys and sheep, and his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the Valley of A'chor. ²⁵And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him with stones; they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones. ²⁶And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day; then the LORD turned from his burning anger. Therefore to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of A'chor.^c

³So Joshua arose, and all the fighting men, to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night. ⁴And he commanded them, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it; do not go very far from the city, but hold yourselves all in readiness; ⁵and I, and all the people who are with me, will approach the city. And when they come out against us, as before, we shall flee before them; ⁶and they will come out after us, till we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, as before.’ So we will flee from them; ⁷then you 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 bidden; see, I have commanded you.” ⁹So Joshua sent them forth; and they went to the place of ambush, and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai; but Joshua spent that night among the people.

¹⁰And Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people, and went up, with the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. ¹¹And all the fighting men who were with him went up, and drew near before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai. ¹²And he took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³So they stationed the forces, the main encampment which was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. ¹⁴And when the king of Ai saw this he and all his people, the men of the city, made haste and went out early to the descent^d toward 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 javelin that is in your hand toward Ai; for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. ¹⁹And the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and took it; and they made haste to set the city on fire. ²⁰So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven; and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. ²¹And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck the men of Ai. ²²And the others came forth from the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side; and Israel struck them, until there was left none that survived or escaped. ²³But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴When Israel had finished slaughtering all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword. ²⁵And all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai. ²⁶For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. ²⁷Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took as their booty, according to the word of the LORD which he commanded Joshua. ²⁸So Joshua burned Ai, and made it for ever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day. ²⁹And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening; and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and cast it 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 an altar on Mount E'bal to the LORD, the God of Israel, ³¹as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, “an altar of unhewn stones, upon which no man has lifted an iron tool”; and they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings. ³²And there, in the presence of the sons of Israel, he wrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. ³³And all Israel, sojourner as well as homeborn, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, half of them in front of Mount Ger'izim and half of them in front of Mount E'bal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at the first, that they should bless the sons of Israel. ³⁴And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. ³⁵There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

³But when the inhabitants of Gib'eon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, ⁴they on their part acted with cunning, and went and made ready provisions, and took worn-out sacks upon 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. ⁶And they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; so now make a covenant with us.” ⁷But the men of Israel said to the Hi'vites, “Perhaps you live among us; then how can we make a covenant 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, “From a very far country your servants have come, because of the name of the LORD your God; for we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt, ¹⁰and all that he did to the two kings of the Am'orites who were beyond the Jordan, Si'hon the king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ash'taroth. ¹¹And our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, “We are your servants; come now, make a covenant 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 forth to come to you, but now, behold, it is dry and moldy; ¹³these wineskins were new when we filled them, and behold, they are burst; and these garments and shoes of ours are worn out from the very long journey.” ¹⁴So the men partook of their provisions, and did not ask direction from the LORD. ¹⁵And Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.

¹⁶At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they dwelt among them. ¹⁷And the sons of Israel set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gib'eon, Chephi'rah, Be-er'oth, and Kir'iath-je'arim. ¹⁸But the sons of Israel did not kill 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 may not touch them. ²⁰This we will do to them, and let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we swore to them.” ²¹And the 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 said of them.

²²Joshua summoned them, and he said to them, “Why did you deceive us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you dwell 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 from before you; so we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and did this thing. ²⁵And now, behold, we are in your hand: do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us.” ²⁶So he did to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the sons of Israel; and they did not kill them. ²⁷But Joshua made them that day 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 which he should choose.

⁶And the men of Gib'eon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, “Do not relax your hand from your servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us; for all the kings of the Am'orites that dwell in the hill country are gathered against us.” ⁷So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. ⁸And the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands; there shall not a man of them stand before you.” ⁹So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. ¹⁰And the LORD threw them into a panic before Israel, who slew them with a great slaughter at Gib'eon, and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-ho'ron, and struck them as far as Aze'kah and Makke'dah. ¹¹And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-ho'ron, the LORD threw down great stones from heaven upon them as far as Aze'kah, and they died; there were more who died because of the hailstones than the men of Israel killed with the sword.

¹²Then spoke Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Am'orites over to the men of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel,

¹⁵Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

¹⁶These five kings fled, and hid themselves in the cave at Makke'dah. ¹⁷And it was told Joshua, “The five kings have been found, hidden in the cave at Makke'dah.” ¹⁸And Joshua said, “Roll great stones against the mouth of the cave, and set men by it to guard them; ¹⁹but do not stay there yourselves, pursue your enemies, fall upon their rear, do not let them enter their cities; for the LORD your God has given them into your hand.” ²⁰When Joshua and the men of Israel had finished slaying them with a very great slaughter, until they were wiped out, and when the remnant which remained of them had entered into the fortified cities, ²¹all the people returned safe to Joshua in the camp at Makke'dah; not a man moved his tongue against any of the sons of Israel.

²²Then Joshua said, “Open the mouth of the cave, and bring those five kings out to me from the cave.” ²³And they did so, and brought those five kings out to him from the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of He'bron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of La'chish, and the king of Eg'lon. ²⁴And when they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, “Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings.” Then they came near, and put their feet on their necks. ²⁵And Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and of good courage; for thus the LORD will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.” ²⁶And afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hung them on five trees. And they hung upon the trees until evening; ²⁷but at the time of the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded, and they took them down from the trees, and threw them into the cave where they had hidden themselves, and they set great stones against the mouth of the cave, which remain to this very day.

²⁸And Joshua took Makke'dah on that day, and struck it and its king with the edge of the sword; he utterly destroyed every person in it, he left none remaining; and he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.

²⁹Then Joshua passed on from Makke'dah, and all Israel with him, to Libnah, and fought against Libnah; ³⁰and the LORD gave it also and its king into the hand of Israel; and he struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it; he left none remaining in it; and he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.

³¹And Joshua passed on from Libnah, and all Israel with him, to La'chish, and laid siege to it, and assaulted it: ³²and the LORD gave La'chish into the hand of Israel, and he took it on the second day, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as he had done to Libnah.

³³Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help La'chish; and Joshua struck him and his people, until he left none remaining.

³⁴And Joshua passed on with all Israel from La'chish to Eg'lon; and they laid siege to it, and assaulted it; ³⁵and they took it on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword; and every person in it he utterly destroyed that day, as he had done to La'chish.

³⁶Then Joshua went up with all Israel from Eg'lon to He'bron; and they assaulted it, ³⁷and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and its king and its towns, and every person in it; he left none remaining, as he had done to Eg'lon, and utterly destroyed it with every person in it.

³⁸Then Joshua, with all Israel, turned back to De'bir and assaulted it, ³⁹and he took it with its king and all its towns; and they struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed every person in it; he left none remaining; as he had done to Heb'ron and to Libnah and its king, so he did to De'bir and to its king.

⁴⁰So Joshua defeated the whole land, the hill country and the Neg'eb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings; he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded. ⁴¹And Joshua defeated them from Ka'desh-bar'nea to Gaza, and all the country of Go'shen, as far as Gib'eon. ⁴²And Joshua took all these kings and their land at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel. ⁴³Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

⁶And the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them, slain, to Israel; you shall hamstring their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.” ⁷So Joshua came suddenly upon them with all his people of war, by the waters of Me'rom, and fell upon them. ⁸And the LORD gave them into the hand of Israel, who struck them and chased them as far as Great Sidon and Mis'rephoth-ma'im, and eastward as far as the valley of Mizpeh; and they struck them, until they left none remaining. ⁹And Joshua did to them as the LORD bade him; he hamstrung their horses, and burned their chariots with fire.

¹⁰And Joshua turned back at that time, and took Ha'zor, and struck its king with the sword; for Hazor formerly was the head of all those kingdoms. ¹¹And they put to the sword all who were in it, utterly destroying them; there was none left that breathed, and he burned Ha'zor with fire. ¹²And all the cities of those kings, and all their kings, Joshua took, and struck them with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded. ¹³But none of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn, except Ha'zor only; that Joshua burned. ¹⁴And all the spoil of these cities and the cattle, the sons of Israel took for their booty; but every man they struck with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any that breathed. ¹⁵As the LORD had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹⁶So Joshua took all that land, the hill country and all the Neg'eb and all the land of Go'shen and the lowland and the Ar'abah and the hill country of Israel and its lowland ¹⁷from Mount Ha'lak, that rises toward Se'ir, as far as Ba'al-gad in the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. And he took all their kings, and struck them, and put them to death. ¹⁸Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. ¹⁹There was not a city that made peace with the sons of Israel, except the Hi'vites, the inhabitants of Gib'eon; they took all in battle. ²⁰For it was the LORD’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be utterly destroyed, and should receive no mercy but be exterminated, as the LORD commanded Moses.

²¹And Joshua came at that time, and wiped out the An'akim from the hill country, from Heb'ron, from De'bir, from A'nab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. ²²There was none of the An'akim left in the land of the sons of Israel; only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, did some remain. ²³So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war.

⁷And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the sons of Israel defeated on the west side of the Jordan, from Ba'al-gad in the valley of Lebanon to Mount Ha'lak, that rises toward Se'ir (and Joshua gave their land to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their allotments, ⁸in the hill country, in the lowland, in the Ar'abah, in the slopes, in the wilderness, and in the Neg'eb, the land of the Hittites, the Am'orites, the Canaanites, the Per'izzites, the Hi'vites, and the Jeb'usites): ⁹the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one; ¹⁰the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of He'bron, one; ¹¹the king of Jarmuth, one; the king of La'chish, one; ¹²the king of Eg'lon, one; the king of Gezer, one; ¹³the king of De'bir, one; the king of Geder, one; ¹⁴the king of Hormah, one; the king of Ar'ad, one; ¹⁵the king of Libnah, one; the king of Adul'lam, one; ¹⁶the king of Makke'dah, one; the king of Bethel, one; ¹⁷the king of Tap'pu-ah, one; the king of He'pher, one; ¹⁸the king of A'phek, one; the king of Lashar'on, one; ¹⁹the king of Madon, one; the king of Ha'zor, one; ²⁰the king of Shim'ron-me'ron, one; the king of Ach'shaph, one; ²¹the king of Ta'anach, one; the king of Megid'do, one; ²²the king of Ke'desh, one; the king of Jok'ne-am in Carmel, one; ²³the king of Dor in Na'phath-dor, one; the king of Goi'im in Galilee,^f one; ²⁴the king of Tirzah, one: in all, thirty-one kings.

⁸With the other half of the tribe of Manas'seh^g the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them: ⁹from Aro'er, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the tableland of Med'eba as far as Di'bon; ¹⁰and all the cities of Si'hon king of the Am'orites, who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the boundary of the Am'monites; ¹¹and Gilead, and the region of the Gesh'urites and Ma-ac'athites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Sal'ecah; ¹²all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ash'taroth and in Ed're-i (he alone was left of the remnant of the Reph'aim); these Moses had defeated and driven out. ¹³Yet the sons of Israel did not drive out the Gesh'urites or the Ma-ac'athites; but Ge'shur and Ma'acath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.

¹⁴To the tribe of Levi alone Moses gave no inheritance; the offerings by fire to the LORD God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to him.

¹⁵And Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of the Reubenites according to their families. ¹⁶So their territory was from Aro'er, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the tableland by Med'eba; ¹⁷with Heshbon, and all its cities that are in the tableland; Di'bon, and Ba'moth-ba'al, and Beth-ba'al-me'on, ¹⁸and Ja'haz, and Ked'emoth, and Meph'a-ath, ¹⁹and Kir''iatha'im, and Sibmah, and Ze'reth-sha'har on the hill of the valley, ²⁰and Beth-pe'or, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-jesh'imoth, ²¹that is, all the cities of the tableland, and all the kingdom of Si'hon king of the Am'orites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses defeated with the leaders of Mid'ian, E'vi and Re'kem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the princes of Si'hon, who dwelt in the land. ²²Balaam also, the son of Beor, the soothsayer, the sons of Israel killed with the sword among the rest of their slain. ²³And the border of the people of Reuben was the Jordan as a boundary. This was the inheritance of the Reubenites, according to their families with their cities and villages.

²⁴And Moses gave an inheritance also to the tribe of the Gadites, according to their families. ²⁵Their territory was Ja'zer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the Am'monites, to Aro'er, which is east of Rabbah, ²⁶and from Heshbon to Ra'math-miz'peh and Bet'onim, and from Ma''hana'im to the territory of De'bir,^{h 27}and in the valley Beth-ha'ram, Beth-nim'rah, Succoth, and Za'phon, the rest of the kingdom of Si'hon king of Heshbon, having the Jordan as a boundary, to the lower end of the Sea of Chin'nereth, eastward beyond the Jordan. ²⁸This is the inheritance of the Gadites according to their families, with their cities and villages.

²⁹And Moses gave an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manas'seh; it was allotted to the half-tribe of the Manas'sites according to their families. ³⁰Their region extended from Ma''hana'im, through all Bashan, the whole kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Ja'ir, which are in Bashan, sixty cities, ³¹and half Gilead, and Ash'taroth, and Ed're-i, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan; these were allotted to the people of Ma'chir the son of Manas'seh for the half of the Ma'chirites according to their families.

³²These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan east of Jericho. ³³But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance; the LORD God of Israel is their inheritance, as he said to them.

⁶Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal; and Caleb the son of Jephun'neh the Ken'izzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Ka'desh-bar'nea concerning you and me. ⁷I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Ka'desh-bar'nea to spy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. ⁸But my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. ⁹And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children for ever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’ ¹⁰And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness; and now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. ¹¹I am still as strong to this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war, and for going and coming. ¹²So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day; for you heard on that day how the An'akim were there, with great fortified cities: it may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out as the LORD said.”

¹³Then Joshua blessed him; and he gave He'bron to Caleb the son of Jephun'neh for an inheritance. ¹⁴So He'bron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephun'neh the Ken'izzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel. ¹⁵Now the name of He'bron formerly was Kir'iath-ar'ba;ⁱ this Arba was the greatest man among the An'akim. And the land had rest from war.

¹³According to the commandment of the LORD to Joshua, he gave to Caleb the son of Jephun'neh a portion among the people of Judah, Kir'iath-ar'ba, that is, He'bron (Arba was the father of A'nak). ¹⁴And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of A'nak, She'shai and Ahi'man and Talmai, the descendants of Anak. ¹⁵And he went up from there against the inhabitants of De'bir; now the name of Debir formerly was Kir'iath-se'pher. ¹⁶And Caleb said, “Whoever strikes Kir'iath-se'pher, and takes it, to him will I give Ach'sah my daughter as wife.” ¹⁷And Oth'ni-el the son of Ke'naz, the brother of Caleb, took it; and he gave him Ach'sah his daughter as wife. ¹⁸When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field; and she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you wish?” ¹⁹She said to him, “Give me a present; since you have set me in the land of the Neg'eb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

²⁰This is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Judah according to their families. ²¹The cities belonging to the tribe of the people of Judah in the extreme South, toward the boundary of E'dom, were Kab'zeel, E'der, Jagur, ²²Kinah, Dimo'nah, Ada'dah, ²³Ke'desh, Ha'zor, Ithnan, ²⁴Ziph, Telem, Be-a'loth, ²⁵Ha'zor-hadat'tah, Ker'i-oth-hez'ron (that is, Ha'zor), ²⁶A'mam, Shema, Mo'ladah, ²⁷Ha'zar-gad'dah, Heshmon, Beth-pel'et, ²⁸Ha'zar-shu'al, Be'er-she'ba, Biziothi'ah, ²⁹Ba'alah, I'im, E'zem, ³⁰Elto'lad, Che'sil, Hormah, ³¹Zik'lag, Madman'nah, Sansan'nah, ³²Leba'oth, Shilhim, A'in, and Rimmon: in all, twenty-nine cities, with their villages.

³³And in the lowland, Esh'ta-ol, Zorah, Ashnah, ³⁴Zano'ah, En-gan'nim, Tap'pu-ah, E'nam, ³⁵Jarmuth, Adul'lam, Socoh, Aze'kah, ³⁶Sha''ara'im, Aditha'im, Gede'rah, Gede'rotha''im: fourteen cities with their villages.

³⁷Ze'nan, Hadash'ah, Mig'dal-gad, ³⁸Di'lean, Mizpeh, Jok'the-el, ³⁹La'chish, Bozkath, Eg'lon, ⁴⁰Cabbon, Lahmam, Chitlish, ⁴¹Gede'roth, Beth-da'gon, Na'amah, and Makke'dah: sixteen cities with their villages.

⁴²Libnah, E'ther, A'shan, ⁴³Iphtah, Ash'nah, Nezib, ⁴⁴Kei'lah, Ach'zib, and Mare'shah: nine cities with their villages.

⁴⁵Ek'ron, with its towns and its villages; ⁴⁶from Ek'ron to the sea, all that were by the side of Ash'dod, with their villages.

⁴⁷Ash'dod, its towns and its villages; Gaza, its towns and its villages; to the Brook of Egypt, and the Great Sea with its coast-line.

⁴⁸And in the hill country, Sha'mir, Jat'tir, Socoh, ⁴⁹Dannah, Kir'iath-san'nah (that is, De'bir), ⁵⁰A'nab, Esh'temoh, A'nim, ⁵¹Goshen, Holon, and Giloh: eleven cities with their villages.

⁵²A'rab, Du'mah, E'shan, ⁵³Ja'nim, Beth-tap'pu-ah, Aphe'kah, ⁵⁴Humtah, Kir'iath-ar'ba (that is, He'bron), and Zior: nine cities with their villages.

⁵⁵Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah, ⁵⁶Jezre'el, Jok'de-am, Zano'ah, ⁵⁷Kain, Gib'e-ah, and Timnah: ten cities with their villages.

⁵⁸Halhul, Beth-zur, Gedor, ⁵⁹Ma'arath, Beth-a'noth, and El'tekon: six cities with their villages.

⁶⁰Kir'iath-ba'al (that is, Kir'iath-je'arim), and Rabbah: two cities with their villages.

⁶¹In the wilderness, Beth-ar'abah, Middin, Seca'cah, ⁶²Nibshan, the City of Salt, and En-ge'di: six cities with their villages.

⁶³But the Jeb'usites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive out; so the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.

⁴The people of Joseph, Manas'seh and E'phraim, received their inheritance.

⁵The territory of the E'phraimites by their families was as follows: the boundary of their inheritance on the east was At'aroth-ad'dar as far as Upper Beth-ho'ron, ⁶and the boundary goes thence to the sea; on the north is Michme'thath; then on the east the boundary turns round toward Ta'anath-shi'loh, and passes along beyond it on the east to Jano'ah, ⁷then it goes down from Jano'ah to At'aroth and to Na'arah, and touches Jericho, ending at the Jordan. ⁸From Tap'pu-ah the boundary goes westward to the brook Kanah, and ends at the sea. Such is the inheritance of the tribe of the E'phraimites by their families, ⁹together with the towns which were set apart for the E'phraimites within the inheritance of the Manas'sites, all those towns with their villages. ¹⁰However they did not drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: so the Canaanites have dwelt in the midst of E'phraim to this day but have become slaves to do forced labor.

³Now Zeloph'ehad the son of He'pher, son of Gilead, son of Ma'chir, son of Manas'seh, had no sons, but only daughters; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. ⁴They came before Elea'zar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the leaders, and said, “The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance along with our brethren.” So according to the commandment of the LORD he gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their father. ⁵Thus there fell to Manas'seh ten portions, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the other side of the Jordan; ⁶because the daughters of Manas'seh received an inheritance along with his sons. The land of Gilead was allotted to the rest of the Manas'sites.

⁷The territory of Manas'seh reached from Asher to Michme'thath, which is east of She'chem; then the boundary goes along southward to the inhabitants of En-tap'pu-ah. ⁸The land of Tap'pu-ah belonged to Manas'seh, but the town of Tappu-ah on the boundary of Manasseh belonged to the sons of E'phraim. ⁹Then the boundary went down to the brook Kanah. The cities here, to the south of the brook, among the cities of Manas'seh, belong to E'phraim. Then the boundary of Manasseh goes on the north side of the brook and ends at the sea; ¹⁰the land to the south being E'phraim’s and that to the north being Manas'seh’s, with the sea forming its boundary; on the north Asher is reached, and on the east Is'sachar. ¹¹Also in Is'sachar and in Asher Manas'seh had Beth-she'an and its villages, and Ib'leam and its villages, and the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, and the inhabitants of En-dor and its villages, and the inhabitants of Ta'anach and its villages, and the inhabitants of Megid'do and its villages; the third is Na'phath.^{j 12}Yet the sons of Manas'seh could not take possession of those cities; but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. ¹³But when the sons of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out.

¹⁴And the tribe of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since hitherto the LORD has blessed me?” ¹⁵And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest, and there clear ground for yourselves in the land of the Per'izzites and the Reph'aim, since the hill country of E'phraim is too narrow for you.” ¹⁶The tribe of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us; yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-she'an and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezre'el.” ¹⁷Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to E'phraim and Manas'seh, “You are a numerous people, and have great power; you shall not have one lot only, ¹⁸but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.”

⁸So the men started on their way; and Joshua charged those who went to write the description of the land, saying, “Go up and down and write a description of the land, and come again to me; and I will cast lots for you here before the LORD in Shiloh.” ⁹So the men went and passed up and down in the land and set down in a book a description of it by towns in seven divisions; then they came to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh, ¹⁰and Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD; and there Joshua apportioned the land to the sons of Israel, to each his portion.

¹¹The lot of the tribe of Benjamin according to its families came up, and the territory allotted to it fell between the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Joseph. ¹²On the north side their boundary began at the Jordan; then the boundary goes up to the shoulder north of Jericho, then up through the hill country westward; and it ends at the wilderness of Beth-a'ven. ¹³From there the boundary passes along southward in the direction of Luz, to the shoulder of Luz (the same is Bethel), then the boundary goes down to At'aroth-ad'dar, upon the mountain that lies south of Lower Beth-ho'ron. ¹⁴Then the boundary goes in another direction, turning on the western side southward from the mountain that lies to the south, opposite Beth-ho'ron, and it ends at Kir'iath-ba'al (that is, Kir'iath-je'arim), a city belonging to the tribe of Judah. This forms the western side. ¹⁵And the southern side begins at the outskirts of Kir'iath-je'arim; and the boundary goes from there to E'phron,^k to the spring of the Waters of Nephto'ah; ¹⁶then the boundary goes down to the border of the mountain that overlooks the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is at the north end of the valley of Reph'aim; and it then goes down the valley of Hinnom, south of the shoulder of the Jeb'usites, and downward to En-ro'gel; ¹⁷then it bends in a northerly direction going on to En-she'mesh, and thence goes to Geli'loth, which is opposite the ascent of Adum'mim; then it goes down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben; ¹⁸and passing on to the north of the shoulder of Beth-ar'abah^l it goes down to the Ar'abah; ¹⁹then the boundary passes on to the north of the shoulder of Beth-hog'lah; and the boundary ends at the northern bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan: this is the southern border. ²⁰The Jordan forms its boundary on the eastern side. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin, according to its families, boundary by boundary round about.

²¹Now the cities of the tribe of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, Beth-hog'lah, E'mek-ke'ziz, ²²Beth-ar'abah, Zemara'im, Bethel, ²³Avvim, Par'ah, Oph'rah, ²⁴Che'phar-am'moni, Ophni, Ge'ba—twelve cities with their villages: ²⁵Gib'eon, Ra'mah, Be-er'oth, ²⁶Mizpeh, Chephi'rah, Mozah, ²⁷Re'kem, Ir'peel, Tar'alah, ²⁸Ze'la, Ha-e'leph, Je'bus^m (that is, Jerusalem), Gib'e-ahⁿ and Kir'iath-je'arim^o—fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin according to its families.

¹⁰The third lot came up for the tribe of Zeb'ulun, according to its families. And the territory of its inheritance reached as far as Sa'rid; ¹¹then its boundary goes up westward, and on to Mar'eal, and touches Dab'besheth, then the brook which is east of Jok'ne-am; ¹²from Sa'rid it goes in the other direction eastward toward the sunrise to the boundary of Chis'loth-ta'bor; thence it goes to Dab'erath, then up to Japhi'a; ¹³from there it passes along on the east toward the sunrise to Gath-he'pher, to Eth-ka'zin, and going on to Rimmon it bends toward Ne'ah; ¹⁴then on the north the boundary turns about to Hanna'thon, and it ends at the valley of Iph'tahel; ¹⁵and Kattath, Nahal'al, Shimron, I'dalah, and Bethlehem—twelve cities with their villages. ¹⁶This is the inheritance of the tribe of Zeb'ulun, according to its families—these cities with their villages.

¹⁷The fourth lot came out for Is'sachar, for the tribe of Issachar, according to its families. ¹⁸Its territory included Jezre'el, Chesul'loth, Shunem, ¹⁹Haph'ara-im, Shi'on, Ana'harath, ²⁰Rabbith, Kish'ion, E'bez, ²¹Re'meth, En-gan'nim, En-had'dah, Beth-paz'zez; ²²the boundary also touches Tabor, Shahazu'mah, and Beth-she'mesh, and its boundary ends at the Jordan—sixteen cities with their villages. ²³This is the inheritance of the tribe of Is'sachar, according to its families—the cities with their villages.

²⁴The fifth lot came out for the tribe of Asher according to its families. ²⁵Its territory included Helkath, Ha'li, Be'ten, Ach'shaph, ²⁶Allam'melech, A'mad, and Mi'shal; on the west it touches Carmel and Shihorlib'nath, ²⁷then it turns eastward, it goes to Beth-da'gon, and touches Zeb'ulun and the valley of Iph'tahel northward to Beth-e'mek and Nei'el; then it continues in the north to Ca'bul, ²⁸E'bron, Re'hob, Hammon, Kanah, as far as Sidon the Great; ²⁹then the boundary turns to Ra'mah, reaching to the fortified city of Tyre; then the boundary turns to Ho'sah, and it ends at the sea; Maha'lab,^p Ach'zib, ³⁰Ummah, A'phek and Re'hob—twenty-two cities with their villages. ³¹This is the inheritance of the tribe of Asher according to its families—these cities with their villages.

³²The sixth lot came out for the tribe of Naph'tali, for the tribe of Naphtali, according to its families. ³³And its boundary ran from He'leph, from the oak in Za-anan'nim, and Ad'ami-nek'eb, and Jab'neel, as far as Lakkum; and it ended at the Jordan; ³⁴then the boundary turns westward to Az'noth-ta'bor, and goes from there to Hukkok, touching Zeb'ulun at the south, and Asher on the west, and Judah on the east at the Jordan. ³⁵The fortified cities are Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chin'nereth, ³⁶Ad'amah, Ra'mah, Ha'zor, ³⁷Ke'desh, Ed're-i, En-ha'zor, ³⁸Yi'ron, Mig'dal-el, Horem, Beth-a'nath, and Beth-she'mesh—nineteen cities with their villages. ³⁹This is the inheritance of the tribe of Naph'tali according to its families—the cities with their villages.

⁴⁰The seventh lot came out for the tribe of Dan, according to its families. ⁴¹And the territory of its inheritance included Zorah, Esh'ta-ol, Irshe'mesh, ⁴²Sha-alab'bin, Ai'jalon, Ithlah, ⁴³E'lon, Timnah, Ek'ron, ⁴⁴El'tekeh, Gib'bethon, Ba'alath, ⁴⁵Je'hud, Ben'e-be'rak, Gath-rim'mon, ⁴⁶and Me-jar'kon and Rakkon with the territory over against Joppa. ⁴⁷When the territory of the Da'nites was lost to them, the Danites went up and fought against Le'shem, and after capturing it and putting it to the sword they took possession of it and settled in it, calling Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their ancestor. ⁴⁸This is the inheritance of the tribe of Dan, according to their families—these cities with their villages.

⁴⁹When they had finished distributing the several territories of the land as inheritances, the sons of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun. ⁵⁰By command of the LORD they gave him the city which he asked, Tim'nath-se'rah in the hill country of E'phraim; and he rebuilt the city, and settled in it.

⁵¹These are the inheritances which Elea'zar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the sons of Israel distributed by lot at Shiloh before the LORD, at the door of the tent of meeting. So they finished dividing the land.

⁷So they set apart Ke'desh in Galilee in the hill country of Naph'tali, and She'chem in the hill country of E'phraim, and Kir'iath-ar'ba (that is, He'bron) in the hill country of Judah. ⁸And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they appointed Be'zer in the wilderness on the tableland, from the tribe of Reuben, and Ra'moth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manas'seh. ⁹These were the cities designated for all the sons of Israel, and for the stranger sojourning among them, that any one who killed a person without intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, till he stood before the congregation.

⁴The lot came out for the families of the Ko'hathites. So those Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest received by lot from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin, thirteen cities.

⁵And the rest of the Ko'hathites received by lot from the families of the tribe of E'phraim, from the tribe of Dan and the half-tribe of Manas'seh, ten cities.

⁶The Ger'shonites received by lot from the families of the tribe of Is'sachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naph'tali, and from the half-tribe of Manas'seh in Bashan, thirteen cities.

⁷The Merar'ites according to their families received from the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the tribe of Zeb'ulun, twelve cities.

⁸These cities and their pasture lands the sons of Israel gave by lot to the Levites, as the LORD had commanded through Moses.

⁹Out of the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Simeon they gave the following cities mentioned by name, ¹⁰which went to the descendants of Aaron, one of the families of the Ko'hathites who belonged to the Levites; since the lot fell to them first. ¹¹They gave them Kir'iath-ar'ba (Arba being the father of A'nak), that is He'bron, in the hill country of Judah, along with the pasture lands round about it. ¹²But the fields of the city and its villages had been given to Caleb the son of Jephun'neh as his possession.

¹³And to the descendants of Aaron the priest they gave He'bron, the city of refuge for the slayer, with its pasture lands, Libnah with its pasture lands, ¹⁴Jat'tir with its pasture lands, Eshtemo'a with its pasture lands, ¹⁵Ho'lon with its pasture lands, De'bir with its pasture lands, ¹⁶A'in with its pasture lands, Juttah with its pasture lands, Beth-she'mesh with its pasture lands—nine cities out of these two tribes; ¹⁷then out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gib'eon with its pasture lands, Ge'ba with its pasture lands, ¹⁸An'athoth with its pasture lands, and Al'mon with its pasture lands—four cities. ¹⁹The cities of the descendants of Aaron, the priests, were in all thirteen cities with their pasture lands.

²⁰As to the rest of the Ko'hathites belonging to the Kohathite families of the Levites, the cities allotted to them were out of the tribe of E'phraim. ²¹To them were given She'chem, the city of refuge for the slayer, with its pasture lands in the hill country of E'phraim, Gezer with its pasture lands, ²²Kib'za-im with its pasture lands, Beth-ho'ron with its pasture lands—four cities; ²³and out of the tribe of Dan, El'teke with its pasture lands, Gib'bethon with its pasture lands, ²⁴Ai'jalon with its pasture lands, Gath-rim'mon with its pasture lands—four cities; ²⁵and out of the half-tribe of Manas'seh, Ta'anach with its pasture lands, and Gath-rim'mon with its pasture lands—two cities. ²⁶The cities of the families of the rest of the Ko'hathites were ten in all with their pasture lands.

²⁷And to the Ger'shonites, one of the families of the Levites, were given out of the half-tribe of Manas'seh, Golan in Bashan with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the slayer, and Be-eshte'rah with its pasture lands—two cities; ²⁸and out of the tribe of Is'sachar, Kish'ion with its pasture lands, Dab'erath with its pasture lands, ²⁹Jarmuth with its pasture lands, En-gan'nim with its pasture lands—four cities; ³⁰and out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands, ³¹Helkath with its pasture lands, and Re'hob with its pasture lands—four cities; ³²and out of the tribe of Naph'tali, Ke'desh in Galilee with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the slayer, Ham'moth-dor with its pasture lands, and Kartan with its pasture lands—three cities. ³³The cities of the several families of the Ger'shonites were in all thirteen cities with their pasture lands.

³⁴And to the rest of the Levites, the Merar'ite families, were given out of the tribe of Zeb'ulun, Jok'ne-am with its pasture lands, Kartah with its pasture lands, ³⁵Dimnah with its pasture lands, Nahal'al with its pasture lands—four cities; ³⁶and out of the tribe of Reuben, Be'zer with its pasture lands, Ja'haz with its pasture lands, ³⁷Ked'emoth with its pasture lands, and Meph'a-ath with its pasture lands—four cities; ³⁸and out of the tribe of Gad, Ra'moth in Gilead with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the slayer, Ma''hana'im with its pasture lands, ³⁹Heshbon with its pasture lands, Ja'zer with its pasture lands—four cities in all. ⁴⁰As for the cities of the several Merar'ite families, that is, the remainder of the families of the Levites, those allotted to them were in all twelve cities.

⁴¹The cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the sons of Israel were in all forty-eight cities with their pasture lands. ⁴²These cities had each its pasture lands round about it; so it was with all these cities.

⁴³Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land which he swore to give to their fathers; and having taken possession of it, they settled there. ⁴⁴And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers; not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. ⁴⁵Not one of all the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

⁷Now to the one half of the tribe of Manas'seh Moses had given a possession in Bashan; but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brethren in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, ⁸he said to them, “Go back to your homes with much wealth, and with very many cattle, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing; divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.” ⁹So the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manas'seh returned home, parting from the sons of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the LORD through Moses.

¹⁰And when they came to the region about the Jordan, that lies in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manas'seh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of great size. ¹¹And the sons of Israel heard say, “Behold, the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manas'seh have built an altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the sons of Israel.” ¹²And when the sons of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the sons of Israel gathered at Shiloh, to make war against them.

¹³Then the sons of Israel sent to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manas'seh, in the land of Gilead, Phin'ehas the son of Elea'zar the priest, ¹⁴and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel. ¹⁵And they came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manas'seh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them, ¹⁶“Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, ‘What is this treachery which you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the LORD, by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the LORD? ¹⁷Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the LORD, ¹⁸that you must turn away this day from following the LORD? And if you rebel against the LORD today he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel tomorrow. ¹⁹But now, if your land is unclean, pass over into the LORD’s land where the LORD’s tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us; only do not rebel against the LORD, or make us as rebels by building yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God. ²⁰Did not A'chan the son of Ze'rah break faith in the matter of the devoted things, and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And he did not perish alone for his iniquity.’”

²¹Then the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manas'seh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, ²²“The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith toward the LORD, spare us not today ²³for building an altar to turn away from following the LORD; or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or cereal offerings or peace offerings on it, may the LORD himself take vengeance. ²⁴No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? ²⁵For the LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you Reubenites and Gadites; you have no portion in the LORD.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the LORD. ²⁶Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, ²⁷but to be a witness between us and you, and between the generations after us, that we do perform the service of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings; lest your children say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the LORD.”’ ²⁸And we thought, If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, ‘Behold the copy of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.’ ²⁹Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD, and turn away this day from following the LORD by building an altar for burnt offering, cereal offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the LORD our God that stands before his tabernacle!”

³⁰When Phin'ehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manas'sites spoke, it pleased them well. ³¹And Phin'ehas the son of Elea'zar the priest said to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manas'sites, “Today we know that the LORD is in the midst of us, because you have not committed this treachery against the LORD; now you have saved the sons of Israel from the hand of the LORD.”

³²Then Phin'ehas the son of Elea'zar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel, and brought back word to them. ³³And the report pleased the sons of Israel; and the sons of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them, to destroy the land where the Reubenites and the Gadites were settled. ³⁴The Reubenites and the Gadites called the altar Witness; “For,” said they, “it is a witness between us that the LORD is God.”

¹⁴“And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed. ¹⁵But just as all the good things which the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God has given you, ¹⁶if you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.”

¹⁴“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵And if you be unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Am'orites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

¹⁶Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; ¹⁷for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; ¹⁸and the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Am'orites who lived in the land; therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

¹⁹But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the LORD; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. ²⁰If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.” ²¹And the people said to Joshua, “No; but we will serve the LORD.” ²²Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” ²³He said, “Then put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel.” ²⁴And the people said to Joshua, “The LORD our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” ²⁵So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at She'chem. ²⁶And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak in the sanctuary of the LORD. ²⁷And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the LORD which he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.” ²⁸So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

²⁹After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being a hundred and ten years old. ³⁰And they buried him in his own inheritance at Tim'nath-se'rah, which is in the hill country of E'phraim, north of the mountain of Ga'ash.

³¹And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work which the LORD did for Israel.

³²The bones of Joseph which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt were buried at She'chem, in the portion of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Ha'mor the father of She'chem for a hundred pieces of money;^q it became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.

³³And Elea'zar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him at Gib'e-ah, the town of Phin'ehas his son, which had been given him in the hill country of E'phraim.