Joshua 1

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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Be strong and courageous

¹After the death of Moses, the servant of the LORD, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant. The LORD said, ²“My servant Moses is dead. Now get up and cross this Jordan, you and all these people, into the land I am about to give them, to the Israelites. ³I have given you every place where you set foot, just as I promised Moses. ⁴Your territory will reach from the wilderness to this Lebanon, and as far as the great river, the Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and west to the Great Sea where the sun sets. ⁵No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. I will be with you just as I was with Moses. I will not let go of you or abandon you. ⁶Be strong and courageous, because you are the one who will lead this people to take as their inheritance the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. ⁷Only be strong and very courageous. Take care to keep the whole law that my servant Moses laid on you. Do not swerve from it to right or left, and then you will act wisely and succeed wherever you go. ⁸Keep this book of the law always on your lips, and reflect on it by day and by night, so that you take care to do all that is written in it. Then you will bring your ways to a good end, and then you will act wisely and succeed. ⁹Have I not given you this command? Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble with fear or lose heart, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Get ready to cross the Jordan

¹⁰So Joshua gave orders to the officials of the people: ¹¹“Go through the camp and give the people this order: ‘Get your food ready for the journey, because three days from now you will cross this Jordan to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you as your own.’”

The tribes east of the Jordan cross armed

¹²Then Joshua spoke to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh: ¹³“Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: ‘The LORD your God is giving you rest, and he will give you this land.’ ¹⁴Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land Moses gave you east of the Jordan. But all your fighting men must cross over armed, going ahead of your fellow Israelites, and you must help them, ¹⁵until the LORD gives your fellow Israelites rest as he has given you, and they too take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving them. After that you may go back to the land that is yours and possess it, the land Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan, toward the sunrise.” ¹⁶They answered Joshua, “We will carry out all your orders to us, and we will go wherever you send us. ¹⁷We obeyed Moses in everything, and in the same way we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you the way he was with Moses. ¹⁸Anyone who rebels against your orders and does not obey your words, whatever you command, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!”