Joshua 3

3 ¹ Early in the morning Joshua rose, and they set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and they camped there before they crossed over. ² Three days later the officers went through the camp ³ and commanded the people: "When you see the ark of the covenant of your Father being carried by the Levitical priests, move out from where you are and follow it. ⁴ Yet keep a distance between yourselves and it, about two thousand cubits by measure; do not come near it, so that you may know the way you are to go, for you have not passed this way before."

⁵ Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow our Father will do wonders among you." ⁶ Then Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people.

⁷ Our Father said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you before all Israel, so that they may know that, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. ⁸ Now command the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: 'When you reach the water's edge at the Jordan, stand still in the Jordan.'"

⁹ Then Joshua said to the people of Israel, "Come here and listen to the words of your Father." ¹⁰ And Joshua said, "This is how you will know that the living Father is among you, and that he will surely drive out before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. ¹¹ Look — the ark of the covenant of the Sovereign of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan. ¹² Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe. ¹³ And when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Sovereign Father of all the earth, come to rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off — the waters flowing down from above — and they will stand up in one heap."

¹⁴ So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant ahead of the people, ¹⁵ and as those carrying the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the water's edge (for the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the harvest season), ¹⁶ the waters flowing down from above stood still and rose up in one heap, very far away, at Adam, the city beside Zarethan, while the waters flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people crossed over opposite Jericho. ¹ 1 v16 Adam is a town on the Jordan River, not the biblical person; the Salt Sea is the modern Dead Sea. ¹⁷ Now the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of our Father stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.