12. The men of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and of half the tribe of Manasseh, ready for battle, crossed ahead of the rest of the people, as Moses had told them to do.
13. In the presence of the Lord about 40,000 men ready for war crossed over to the plain near Jericho.
14. What the Lord did that day made the people of Israel consider Joshua a great man. They honoured him all his life, just as they had honoured Moses.
15. Then the Lord told Joshua
16. to command the priests carrying the Covenant Box to come up out of the Jordan.
17. Joshua did so,
18. and when the priests reached the river bank, the river began flowing once more and flooded its banks again.
19. The people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and made camp at Gilgal, east of Jericho.
20. There Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan.
21. He said to the people of Israel, “In the future, when your children ask you what these stones mean,
22. you will tell them about the time when Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.
23. Tell them that the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan for you until you had crossed, just as he dried up the Red Sea for us.
24. Because of this everyone on earth will know how great the Lord's power is, and you will honour the Lord your God for ever.”