Joshua 3

3 ¹ Joshua rose early, and he and all Israel set out from Shittim, reached the Jordan, and camped there before crossing 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 carried by the Levitical priests, leave your place and follow it. ⁴ Only keep a distance between yourselves and it, about three thousand feet by measure; don't come near it, so you may know the way to go, since you have not traveled this way before.

⁵ Joshua told the people, "Dedicate yourselves—tomorrow our Father will do wonders among you." ⁶ Then Joshua told the priests, 'Take up the ark of the covenant and cross 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 they may know that as I was with Moses, I will be with you." ⁸ Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant: 'When you reach the edge of Jordan's water, stand still in the Jordan.'

⁹ Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of your Father." ¹⁰ Joshua said, "This is how you will know the living Father is among you: he will surely drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites." ¹¹ Look — the ark of the covenant of the Sovereign of all the earth crosses ahead of you into the Jordan. ¹² Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe. ¹³ When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the Sovereign Father of all the earth come to rest in the Jordan's waters, the Jordan's waters will be cut off — the water flowing from above — and stand in one heap.

¹⁴ When the people left their tents to cross the Jordan, priests carried the covenant ark ahead of them, ¹⁵ As those carrying the ark reached the Jordan, and the priests' feet carrying the ark dipped in the water's edge (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all harvest days), ¹⁶ The water flowing from upstream stood, rising into one heap far off at Adam, the city near Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, was completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho. ^a a v16 Adam is a town on the Jordan River, not the biblical person. Hebrew: the Salt Sea. ¹⁷ The priests carrying the ark of our Father's covenant stood firm on dry ground in the Jordan's middle, while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the whole nation finished crossing the Jordan.