1. After Israel had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua:
4. Joshua chose twelve men; he called them together,
5. and told them:Go to the middle of the river bed where the sacred chest is, and pick up a large rock. Carry it on your shoulder to our camp. There are twelve of you, so there will be one rock for each tribe.
8. The men followed the instructions that the Lord had given Joshua. They picked up twelve rocks, one for each tribe, and carried them to the camp, where they put them down.
9. Joshua told some other men to set up a monument next to the place where the priests were standing. This monument was also made of twelve large rocks, and it is still there in the middle of the river.
10-13. The army got ready for battle and crossed the Jordan. They marched quickly past the sacred chest and into the desert near Jericho. Forty thousand soldiers from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh led the way, as Moses had ordered.The priests stayed where they were until the army had followed the orders that the Lord had given Moses and Joshua. Then the army watched as the priests carried the chest the rest of the way across.
14-18. “Joshua,” the Lord said, “tell the priests to come up from the Jordan and bring the chest with them.” So Joshua went over to the priests and told them what the Lord had said. And as soon as the priests carried the chest past the highest place that the flood waters of the Jordan had reached, the river flooded its banks again.That's how the Lord showed the Israelites that Joshua was their leader. For the rest of Joshua's life, they respected him as they had respected Moses.
19. It was the tenth day of the first month of the year when Israel crossed the River Jordan. They set up camp at Gilgal, which was east of the land controlled by Jericho.