The people went up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and camped in Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.

They were assigned to the Kohathite clans of the Levites who were descendants of Aaron, for the first lot belonged to them.

The first lot belonged to the tribe of Benjamin by its clans. Their allotted territory was between Judah and Joseph.

The first lot belonged to the Kohathite clans. The Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest were allotted thirteen cities from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin.

I and all the troops who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will retreat from them.

They will attack us until we have lured them from the city, for they will say, ‘They are retreating from us like before.’ We will retreat from them.

At that time Joshua made this solemn declaration: “The man who attempts to rebuild this city of Jericho will stand condemned before the Lord. He will lose his firstborn son when he lays its foundations and his youngest son when he erects its gates!”

So the Israelites camped in Gilgal and celebrated the Passover in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho.

The Israelites sent Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, to the land of Gilead to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

All the people, rulers, leaders, and judges were standing on either side of the ark, in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Both resident foreigners and native Israelites were there. Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the Lord’s servant had previously instructed to them to do for the formal blessing ceremony.