Joshua 3
1THEREUPON Joshua arose early next morning, and removed from Sattin; and having come to the Jordan, they halted there some time before they crossed.
2And after three days the officers went through the camp,
3and gave a charge to the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord our God, and our priests, and the Levites carrying it, you shall remove from your places, and march after it.
4But let there be a considerable distance between you and it. You shall keep at the distance of about two thousand cubits. You must not come near it, that you may know the way you are to march; for you have never heretofore gone this way.
5Then Joshua said to the people, Purify yourselves against to-morrow; for to-morrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
6And when Joshua said to the priests, Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and march before the people; and the priests had taken up the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and were marching before the people,
7the Lord said to Joshua, This day I begin to exalt thee in the sight of all the children of Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.
8Now therefore command the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, and say, Soon as you are come to a part of the water of the Jordan, you shall halt at the Jordan.
9Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, Draw near, and hear the word of the Lord our God.
10By this you will know that the living God is among you, and that he will surely root out from before you the Chananite, and the Chettite, and the Pherezite, and the Evite, and the Amorite, and Gergasite, and the Jebusite.
11Behold the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth is about to cross the Jordan;
13and it shall come to pass, that when the feet of the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth shall rest in the water of the Jordan, the water of the Jordan shall fail, and the water which is coming down shall be stopped.
14So the people removed from their tents to cross the Jordan, and the priests carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord before the people.
15And soon as the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests, who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, were dipped into a part of the water of the Jordan, though the Jordan overflowed all its banks, as in the days of wheat harvest, yet the waters coming down from above stopped.
16They stopped like one solid mass, reaching a great way back, even to a part of Kariathiarim; and the water below flowed down into the sea of Araba, the salt sea, until it was entirely gone, and the people stood over against Jericho.
17Then the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground, and all the children of Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had finished crossing the Jordan.