free
from our solemn promise to you." She replied, "It shall be as you say."
So she sent them away. And when they were gone, she bound the scarlet
cord in the window.

So they left and went into the hills and stayed there three days until
those who were looking for them had returned. They sought for them in
every direction but did not find them. Then the two men came down from
the hills, crossed the river, and came to Joshua and told him all that
had happened to them.

Joshua rose up early in the morning and set out from Shittim. And he and
all the Israelites came to the Jordan and spent the night there before
crossing. And Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for
to-morrow Jehovah will do wonders among you. Come and hear the words of
Jehovah your God. By this you shall know that a living God is with you:
the ark of the Lord of all the earth is about to pass over before you
into the Jordan. When the priests who bear the ark of the Lord of all
the earth step into the waters of the Jordan, its waters shall be cut
off, so that the waters that come down from above will stand still in a
heap."

So when the people left their tents to pass over the Jordan, the
priests, who were carrying the ark were in front of them. And when the
bearers of the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who
were carrying the ark dipped in the brink of the water--for the Jordan
overflows all its banks during the harvest time--the waters that came
down from above stood still and its waters rose in a heap a long
distance up the river at Adam, the city that is near Zarethan. The
waters that went down toward the Dead Sea were wholly cut off, while the
people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who were carrying the
ark of Jehovah stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan,
while all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until the whole
nation had completed the crossing of the Jordan.

When they had all crossed, Jehovah said to Joshua, "Command them to take
from the middle of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet
stood, twelve stones and carry them over with you and lay them down in
the camping-place, where you pass the night, that this may be a reminder
to them. Then when your children ask from time to time: 'What do these
stones mean to you?' you shall say to them, 'They are reminders that the
waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of Jehovah, when it
passed over the Jordan.