&#8220;Go through the camp and command the people, &#8216;Prepare your supplies, for within three days you will cross the Jordan River and begin the conquest of the land the <sc>Lordsc> your God is ready to hand over to you.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

&#8220;Remember what Moses the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s servant commanded you.<n id="1" /> The <sc>Lordsc> your God is giving you a place to settle and is handing this land over to you.<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them:<n id="1" /> &#8220;Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho.&#8221;<n id="2" /> They stopped at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there.<n id="3" />

So the king of Jericho sent this order to Rahab:<n id="1" /> &#8220;Turn over<n id="2" /> the men who came to you<n id="3" /> &#8211; the ones who came to your house<n id="4" /> &#8211; for they have come to spy on the whole land!&#8221;

When we heard the news we lost our courage and no one could even breathe for fear of you.<n id="1" /> For the <sc>Lordsc> your God is God in heaven above and on earth below!

The men said to her, &#8220;If you<n id="1" /> die, may we die too!<n id="2" /> If you do not report what we&#8217;ve been up to,<n id="3" /> then, when the <sc>Lordsc> hands the land over to us, we will show unswerving allegiance<n id="4" /> to you.&#8221;<n id="5" />p>

When the feet<n id="1" /> of the priests carrying the ark of the <sc>Lordsc>, the Ruler<n id="2" /> of the whole earth, touch<n id="3" /> the water of the Jordan, the water coming downstream toward you will stop flowing and pile up.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

Joshua told the two men who had spied on the land, &#8220;Enter the prostitute&#8217;s house<n id="1" /> and bring out the woman and all who belong to her as you promised her.&#8221;<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">Joshua sent men from Jericho<n id="1" /> to Ai (which is located near Beth Aven, east of Bethel<n id="2" />) and instructed them, &#8220;Go up and spy on the land.&#8221; So the men went up and spied on Ai.

<p class="bodytext">Joshua defeated the whole land, including the hill country, the Negev, the lowlands,<n id="1" /> the slopes, and all their kings. He left no survivors. He annihilated everything that breathed, just as the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel had commanded.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Joshua conquered the whole land,<n id="1" /> including the hill country, all the Negev, all the land of Goshen, the lowlands,<n id="2" /> the Arabah, the hill country of Israel and its lowlands,

Joshua conquered<n id="1" /> the whole land, just as the <sc>Lordsc> had promised Moses,<n id="2" /> and he assigned Israel their tribal portions.<n id="3" /> Then the land was free of war.p>

<p class="bodytext">Now these are the kings of the land whom the Israelites defeated and drove from their land<n id="1" /> on the east side of the Jordan,<n id="2" /> from the Arnon Valley to Mount Hermon, including all the eastern Arabah:p>

<p class="bodytext">These are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the Israelites defeated on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal Gad in the Lebanon Valley to Mount Halak on up to Seir. Joshua assigned this territory to the Israelite tribes,<n id="1" />

I was forty years old when Moses, the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s servant, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy on the land and I brought back to him an honest report.<n id="1" />

That day Moses made this solemn promise:<n id="1" /> &#8216;Surely the land on which you walked<n id="2" /> will belong to you and your descendants permanently,<n id="3" /> for you remained loyal to the <sc>Lordsc> your God.&#8217;

So Joshua said to the Israelites: &#8220;How long do you intend to put off occupying<n id="1" /> the land the <sc>Lordsc> God of your ancestors<n id="2" /> has given you?

<p class="bodytext">When the men started out, Joshua told those going to map out the land, &#8220;Go, walk through the land, map it out, and return to me. Then I will draw lots for you before the <sc>Lordsc> here in Shiloh.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">These are the land assignments which Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the Israelite tribal leaders<n id="1" /> made by drawing lots in Shiloh before the <sc>Lordsc> at the entrance of the tent of meeting.<n id="2" /> So they finished dividing up the land.p>

The Israelites were satisfied with their report and gave thanks to God.<n id="1" /> They said nothing more about launching an attack to destroy the land in which the Reubenites and Gadites lived.<n id="2" />