Watch yourselves carefully! Love the Lord your God! ¹ 

saying, “Take home ¹  great wealth, a lot of cattle, ²  silver, gold, bronze, iron, and a lot of ³  clothing. Divide up the goods captured from your enemies with your brothers.”

He told ¹  them, “Look, set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city; all of you be ready!

They told him, “Your subjects ¹  have come from a very distant land because of the reputation ²  of the Lord your God, for we have heard the news about all he did in Egypt ³ 

These wineskins we filled were brand new, but look how they have ripped. Our clothes and sandals have worn out because it has been a very long journey.”

¹ Joshua summoned the Gibeonites ²  and said to them, “Why did you trick ³  us by saying, ‘We live far away from you,’ when you really live nearby? ⁴ 

All Jerusalem was terrified ¹  because Gibeon was a large city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai and all its men were warriors.

Joshua and the Israelites almost totally wiped them out, but some survivors did escape to the fortified cities. ¹ 

These kings came out with their armies; they were as numerous as the sand on the seashore and had a large number of horses and chariots. ¹ 

When Joshua was very old, ¹  the Lord told him, “You are very old, and a great deal of land remains to be conquered.

Be very strong! Carefully obey ¹  all that is written in the law scroll of Moses so you won’t swerve from it to the right or the left,

Make sure you are ¹  very strong and brave! Carefully obey ²  all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! ³  Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful ⁴  in all you do. ⁵ 

the water coming downstream toward them stopped flowing. ¹  It piled up far upstream ²  at Adam (the city near Zarethan); there was no water at all flowing to the sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea). ³  The people crossed the river opposite Jericho. ⁴ 

But carefully obey the commands and instructions Moses the Lord’s servant gave you. Love ¹  the Lord your God, follow all his instructions, ²  obey ³  his commands, be loyal to him, ⁴  and serve him with all your heart and being!” ⁵ 

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.