THE BOOK OF JOSUE
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
This Book is called JOSUE, because it contains the history of what passed under him, and according to the common opinion was written by him. The Greeks call him Jesus: for Josue and Jesus in the Hebrew, are the same name, and have the same signification, viz., A SAVIOUR. And it was not without a mystery that he who was to bring the people into the land of promise should have his name changed from OSEE (for so he was called before, Num. 13.17,) to JOSUE or JESUS, to give us to understand, that Moses by his law could only bring the people within sight of the promised inheritance, but that our Saviour JESUS was to bring us into it.
Josue Chapter 1
Josue, encouraged by the Lord, admonisheth the people to prepare themselves to pass over the Jordan.
1:1. Now it came to pass after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Josue, the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and said to him:
1:2. Moses my servant is dead: arise, and pass over this Jordan, thou and thy people with thee, into the land which I will give to the children of Israel.
1:3. I will deliver to you every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, as I have said to Moses.
1:4. From the desert, and from Libanus unto the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hethites, unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.
1:5. No man shall be able to resist you all the days of thy life: as I have been with Moses, so will I be with thee: I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee.
1:6. Take courage, and be strong: for thou shalt divide by lot to this people the land for which I swore to their fathers, that I would deliver it to them.
1:7. Take courage therefore, and be very valiant: that thou mayst observe and do all the law, which Moses my servant hath commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayst understand all things which thou dost.
1:8. Let not the book of this law depart from thy mouth: but thou shalt meditate on it day and night, that thou mayst observe and do all things that are written in it: then shalt thou direct thy way, and understand it.
1:9. Behold I command thee, take courage, and be strong. Fear not, and be not dismayed: because the Lord thy God is with thee in all things whatsoever thou shalt go to.
1:10. And Josue commanded the princes of the people, saying: Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people, and say:
1:11. Prepare your victuals: for after the third day you shall pass over the Jordan, and shall go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God will give you.
1:12. And he said to the Rubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasses:
1:13. Remember the word, which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying: The Lord your God hath given you rest, and all this land.
1:14. Your wives, and children; and cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan: but pass you over armed before your brethren all of you that are strong of hand, and fight for them,
1:15. Until the Lord give rest to your brethren, as he hath given you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God will give them: and so you shall return into the land of your possession, and you shall dwell in it, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun.
1:16. And they made answer to Josue, and said: All that thou hast commanded us, we will do: and whither soever thou shalt send us, we will go.
1:17. As we obeyed Moses in all things, so will we obey thee also: only be the Lord thy God with thee, as he was with Moses.
1:18. He that shall gainsay thy mouth, and not obey all thy words, that thou shalt command him, let him die: only take thou courage, and do manfully.
Josue Chapter 2
Two spies are sent to Jericho, who are received and concealed by Rahab.
2:1. And Josue, the son of Nun, sent from Setim two men, to spy secretly: and said to them: Go, and view the land, and the city of Jericho. They went, and entered into the house of a woman that was a harlot, named Rahab, and lodged with her.
2:2. And it was told the king of Jericho, and was said: Behold there are men come in hither, by night, of the children of Israel, to spy the land.
2:3. And the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying: Bring forth the men that came to thee, and are entered into thy house: for they are spies, and are come to view all the land.
2:4. And the woman taking the men, hid them, and said: I confess they came to me, but I knew not whence they were:
2:5. And at the time of shutting the gate in the dark, they also went out together. I know not whither they are gone: pursue after them quickly, and you will overtake them.
2:6. But she made the men go up to the top of her house, and covered them with the stalks of flax, which was there.
2:7. Now they that were sent, pursued after them, by the way that leadeth to the fords of the Jordan: and as soon as they were gone out, the gate was presently shut.
2:8. The men that were hid were not yet asleep, when behold the woman went up to them, and said:
2:9. I know that the Lord hath given this land to you: for the dread of you is fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land have lost all strength.
2:10. We have heard that the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea, at your going in, when you came out of Egypt: and what things you did to the two kings of the Amorrhites, that were beyond the Jordan, Sehon and Og whom you slew.
2:11. And at the hearing these things, we were affrighted, and our heart fainted away, neither did there remain any spirit in us, at your coming in: for the Lord your God he is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath.
2:12. Now, therefore, swear ye to me by the Lord, that as I have shewed mercy to you, so you also will shew mercy to my father's house: and give me a true token.
2:13. That you will save my father and mother, my brethren and sisters, and all things that are theirs, and deliver our souls from death.
2:14. They answered her: Be our lives for you unto death, only if thou betray us not. And when the Lord shall have delivered us the land, we will shew thee mercy and truth.
2:15. Then she let them down with a cord out of a window: for her house joined close to the wall.
2:16. And she said to them: Get ye up to the mountains, lest perhaps they meet you as they return: and there lie ye hid three days, till they come back, and so you shall go on yonr way.
2:17. And they said to her: We shall be blameless of this oath, which thou hast made us swear,