Joshua 3 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Early the following morning Joshua and the Israelites set out from Shittim and arrived at the banks of the Jordan. There they all spent the night before crossing over.
1 Joshua got up early in the morning; and they moved from Shittim and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel. They camped there before they crossed over.
2 Three days later those in charge of the people went through the camp
2 After three days, the officers went through the middle of the camp;
3 telling the people, “When you see the Ark of the Agreement of the Lord your God carried by the priests, the Levites, you must leave the place where you are and follow it.
3 and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of Yahweh your God’s covenant, and the Levitical priests bearing it, then leave your place and follow it.
4 That way you'll know which way to go, since you haven't been here before. Leave about 3,000 feet between you and the Ark. Don't go near it!”
4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it of about two thousand cubits by measure—don’t come closer to it—that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not passed this way before.”
5 Then Joshua said to the people, “Make sure you are pure, because tomorrow the Lord is going to do amazing things among you.”
5 Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders among you.”
6 Joshua spoke to the priests, “Pick up the Ark of the Agreement and go before the people.” So they picked up the Ark of the Agreement and went ahead of the people.
6 Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and cross over before the people.” They took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.
7 The Lord said to Joshua, “What I do today will confirm you as a great leader in the sight of all the Israelites, so that they'll realize that just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
7 Yahweh 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.
8 Tell the priests carrying the Ark of the Agreement, ‘When you get to the edge of the Jordan, take a few steps into the water and then stop.’”
8 You 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.’”
9 So Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to what the Lord your God has to say to you.
9 Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of Yahweh your God.”
10 This is how you will know that the living God is right here with you,” he told them. “You can be sure that he will drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.
10 Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite out from before you.
11 Just watch—the Ark of the Agreement of the Lord of all the earth will cross in front of you through the Jordan.
11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into the Jordan.
12 Choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one per tribe.
12 Now therefore take twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, for every tribe a man.
13 The moment the priests carrying the Ark step into the water the river will stop flowing and the water will pile up.”
13 It shall be that when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan will be cut off. The waters that come down from above shall stand in one heap.”
14 So the people broke camp and set out to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the Ark ahead of them.
14 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,
15 As it was harvest season, the Jordan was full of water, overflowing its banks. But at the very moment the priests carrying the Ark stepped into the water, the river stopped flowing.
15 and 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),
16 The water piled up a long way upstream, at the town of Adam, near Zarethan, while downstream no more water flowed into the Dead Sea. So the people crossed over, opposite Jericho.
16 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 near Jericho.
17 The priests carrying the Ark stood on the dried-up riverbed of the Jordan as all the people went by, staying there until everyone had crossed over on dry ground.
17 The priests who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the nation had passed completely over the Jordan.
Cross references (17)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Joshua 2:1; Mark 1:35; Genesis 22:3; Jeremiah 7:13; Numbers 25:1
- 2 Joshua 1:10–11
- 3 Deuteronomy 31:9; 2 Samuel 6:13; Exodus 13:21–22; Numbers 10:33; Joshua 3:8
- 4 Psalm 89:7; Exodus 3:5; Hebrews 12:28–29; Exodus 19:12; 1 Chronicles 11:2
- 5 Leviticus 20:7; Joshua 7:13; 1 Samuel 16:5; Joel 2:16; John 17:19
- 6 Numbers 10:33; John 14:2–3; Joshua 3:3; Micah 2:13; Numbers 14:15
- 7 Joshua 4:14; Joshua 1:5; 1 Chronicles 29:25; 2 Chronicles 1:1; Psalm 18:35
- 8 Joshua 3:3; Joshua 3:17; 2 Chronicles 31:9–10; 2 Chronicles 35:2–6; 2 Chronicles 29:27
- 9 Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 12:8
- 10 Deuteronomy 7:1; Exodus 33:2; Psalm 44:2–3; Hebrews 10:31; 1 Samuel 17:26
- 11 Zechariah 6:5; Psalm 24:1; Zechariah 4:14; Joshua 3:13; Micah 4:13
- 12 Joshua 4:2; Joshua 4:4; Joshua 4:9
- 13 Exodus 15:8; Psalm 78:13; Joshua 3:11; Joshua 3:15–16; Psalm 33:7
- 14 Acts 7:44–45; Psalm 132:8; Joshua 3:3; Hebrews 9:4; 1 Corinthians 1:24–25
- 15 1 Chronicles 12:15; Jeremiah 12:5; Jeremiah 49:19; Joshua 3:13; Joshua 4:18
- 16 Joshua 3:13; 1 Kings 4:12; 1 Kings 7:46; Genesis 14:3; Deuteronomy 1:1
- 17 Exodus 14:29; Exodus 14:22; Psalm 66:6; Isaiah 25:8; 2 Kings 2:8
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… when touched by the feet of the priests who bore the Ark, stood still from above with bridled stream, while it flowed down from below, where it ran on into the sea, until the whole people passed over, the priests standing on the dry ground. We know these things, but yet we should not imagine in this Psalm, to which …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)