as well as all the towns around these cities as far as Baalath Beer (Ramah of the Negev). This was the land assigned to the tribe of Simeon by its clans. ¹ 

Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness against you, for it has heard everything the Lord said to us. ¹  It will be a witness against you if ²  you deny your God.”

He has done this so ¹  all the nations ²  of the earth might recognize the Lord’s power ³  and so you might always obey ⁴  the Lord your God.”

This is why Joshua had to circumcise them: All the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt died on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt. ¹ 

Yet Joshua spared ¹  Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, ²  and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel ³  to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. ⁴ 

It then crossed to the slope of Beth Hoglah to the north and ended at the northern tip of the Salt Sea ¹  at the mouth of the Jordan River. ²  This was the southern border.

The sin we committed at Peor was bad enough. To this very day we have not purified ourselves; it even brought a plague on the community of the Lord. ¹ 

This law scroll must not leave your lips! ¹  You must memorize it ²  day and night so you can carefully obey ³  all that is written in it. Then you will prosper ⁴  and be successful. ⁵ 

At sunset Joshua ordered his men to take them down from the trees. ¹  They threw them into the cave where they had hidden and piled large stones over the mouth of the cave. (They remain to this very day.) ² 

It then turned on the west side southward from the hill near Beth Horon on the south and extended to Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim), a city belonging to the tribe ¹  of Judah. This is the western border. ² 

On the seventh day they were up at the crack of dawn ¹  and marched around the city as before – only this time they marched around it seven times. ² 

The Lord told Joshua, “This very day I will begin to honor you before all Israel ¹  so they will know that I am with you just as I was with Moses.

Joshua continued, ¹  “This is how you will know the living God is among you and that he will truly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.

So King Adoni-Zedek of Jerusalem sent this message to King Hoham of Hebron, King Piram of Jarmuth, King Japhia of Lachish, and King Debir of Eglon:

We swear we have done this because we were worried that ¹  in the future your descendants would say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the Lord God of Israel? ² 

She said to the men, “I know the Lord is handing this land over to you. ¹  We are absolutely terrified of you, ²  and all who live in the land are cringing before ³  you. ⁴ 

They said to Joshua, “It was carefully reported to your subjects ¹  how the Lord your God commanded Moses his servant to assign you the whole land and to destroy all who live in the land from before you. Because of you we were terrified ²  we would lose our lives, so we did this thing.

Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, said to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the Manassehites, ¹  “Today we know that the Lord is among us, because you have not disobeyed the Lord in this. ²  Now ³  you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord’s judgment.” ⁴ 

know for certain that the Lord our God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. They will trap and ensnare you; ¹  they will be a whip that tears ²  your sides and thorns that blind ³  your eyes until you disappear ⁴  from this good land the Lord your God gave you.

So the king of Jericho sent this order to Rahab: ¹  “Turn over ²  the men who came to you ³  – the ones who came to your house ⁴  – for they have come to spy on the whole land!”