CHAPTER 3
1 Therefore Joshua rose by night, and moved thence the tents; and they went out of Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the sons of Israel, and dwelled there three days.
2 And when those days were passed, criers or beadles went through the midst of the tents,
3 and began to cry, When ye see the ark of [the] bond of peace of your Lord God, and the priests of the generation of Levi bearing it, also then rise ye, and follow the before-goers;
4 and a space of two thousand cubits be betwixt you and the ark, that ye may see [a] far, and know by which way ye shall enter, for ye have not gone before by it; and be ye ware, that ye nigh not to the ark.
5 And Joshua said to the people, Be ye hallowed, for tomorrow the Lord shall make marvels among you.
6 And Joshua said to the priests, Take ye the ark of the bond of peace of the Lord, and go ye before the people. The which fulfilled the behests of Joshua, and they took the ark, and went before the people.
7 And the Lord said to Joshua, Today I shall begin to enhance thee before all Israel, that they know, that as I was with Moses, so I am also with thee.
8 Forsooth command thou to the priests, that bear the ark of [the] bond of peace, and say thou to them, When ye have entered into a part of the water of Jordan, stand ye therein.
9 And Joshua said to the sons of Israel, Nigh ye hither, and hear ye the word of your Lord God.
10 And again he said, In this ye shall know that the Lord God living is in the midst of you; and he shall destroy in your sight Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, and Perizzites, and Girgashites, and Jebusites, and Amorites.
11 Lo! the ark of the bond of peace of the Lord of all earth shall go before you through the Jordan.
12 Make ye ready twelve men of the twelve lineages of Israel, by each lineage one man.
13 And when the priests, that bear the ark of [the] bond of peace of the Lord God of all earth, have set the steps of their feet in the waters of Jordan, the waters that be lower shall run down, and shall fail; soothly the waters that come from above shall stand together in one gathering, or a certain place.
14 Therefore the people went out of their tabernacles for to pass over the Jordan; and the priests that bare the ark of [the] bond of peace went before the people.
15 And when the priests entered into the Jordan, and their feet were dipped in the part of [the] water; forsooth the Jordan had filled the brinks of his trough in the time of ripe corn;
16 the waters went down, and stood in one place, and waxed great at the likeness of an hill, and appeared far from the city that was called Adam, till to the place of Zaretan; soothly the waters that were lower went down into the sea of wilderness, which is now called the Dead Sea, till the waters failed utterly. Forsooth the people went through the Jordan;
17 and the priests, that bare the ark of the bond of peace of the Lord, stood girded on the dry earth in the midst of the Jordan, and all the people passed [over] through the dry trough.