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" />

Israel worshiped<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> throughout Joshua&#8217;s lifetime and as long as the elderly men who outlived him remained alive.<n id="2" /> These men had experienced firsthand everything the <sc>Lordsc> had done for Israel.<n id="3" />p>

The king of Jericho received this report: &#8220;Note well!<n id="1" /> Israelite men have come here tonight<n id="2" /> to spy on the land.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">Bright and early the next morning Joshua and the Israelites left Shittim and came to the Jordan.<n id="1" /> They camped there before crossing the river.<n id="2" />

Now select for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one per tribe.

<p class="bodytext">Joshua summoned the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one per tribe.

The Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed for battle ahead of the Israelites, just as Moses had instructed them.

That day the <sc>Lordsc> brought honor to Joshua before all Israel. They respected<n id="1" /> him all his life,<n id="2" /> just as they had respected<n id="3" /> Moses.p>

He told the Israelites, &#8220;When your children someday ask their fathers, &#8216;What do these stones represent?&#8217;<n id="1" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">At that time the <sc>Lordsc> told Joshua, &#8220;Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites once again.&#8221;<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">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.<n id="1" />

The manna stopped appearing the day they ate<n id="1" /> some of the produce of the land; the Israelites never ate manna again.<n id="2" />p>

But be careful when you are setting apart the riches for the <sc>Lordsc>. If you take any of it, you will make the Israelite camp subject to annihilation and cause a disaster.<n id="1" />

Achan told Joshua, &#8220;It is true. I have sinned against the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel in this way:<n id="1" />

They took it all from the middle of the tent, brought it to Joshua and all the Israelites, and placed<n id="1" /> it before the <sc>Lordsc>.

<p class="bodytext">Bright and early the next morning Joshua gathered<n id="1" /> the army,<n id="2" /> and he and the leaders<n id="3" /> of Israel marched<n id="4" /> at the head of it<n id="5" /> to Ai.

When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the city was going up in smoke,<n id="1" /> they turned around and struck down the men of Ai.

But Israel did plunder the cattle and the goods of the city, in accordance with the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s orders to Joshua.<n id="1" />

There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a duplicate of the law written by Moses.<n id="1" />

They came to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, &#8220;We have come from a distant land. Make a treaty with us.&#8221;