Study Desk

For the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that the LORD had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed;

and when all the people had finished crossing, then the ark of the LORD and the priests crossed in front of the people.

^(C1)The sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over in battle formation before the sons of Israel, just as Moses had spoken to them;

about forty thousand equipped for war, crossed for battle before the LORD to the desert plains of Jericho.

^(C1)On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, so that they ^(F1)revered him, just as they had ^(F1)revered Moses all the days of his life.

Now the LORD said to ^(F1)Joshua,

"Command the priests who carry ^(C1)the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan."

So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, "Come up from the Jordan."

It came about when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were ^(F1)lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before.