Joshua 4, 5

4  WHEN THE WHOLE NATION HAD FINISHED CROSSING the Jordan,              
the Lord said to Joshua, 'Take twelve men from the people, one from each         
tribe, and order them to lift up twelve stones from this place, out of the        
middle of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood firm.  They are to        
carry them across and set them down in the camp where you spend the          
night.'  Joshua summoned the twelve men whom he had chosen out of the      
Israelites, one man from each tribe, and said to them, 'Cross over in front     
of the Ark of the Lord your God as far as the middle of the Jordan, and let       
each of you take a stone and hoist it on his shoulder, one for each of the      
tribes of Israel.  These stones are to stand as a memorial among you; and       
shall tell them how the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of     
the Covenant of the Lord when it crossed the Jordan.  Thus these stones      
will always be a reminder to the Israelites.'  The Israelites did as Joshua had      
commanded: they lifted up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan,       
as the Lord had instructed Joshua, one for each of the tribes of Israel,    
carried them across to the camp and set them down there.       
   Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan at the place       
where the priests stood who carried the Ark of the Covenant, and there      
they are to this day.  The priests carrying the Ark remained standing in the      
middle of the Jordan until every command which the Lord had told Joshua        
to give the people was fulfilled, and the people had made good speed        
across.  When all the people had finished crossing, then the Ark of the Lord         
crossed, and the priests with it.  At the head of the Israelites, there crossed        
over the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, as a        
fighting force, as Moses had told them to do; about forty thousand strong,       
drafted for active service, they crossed over to the lowlands of Jericho in       
the presence of the Lord to do battle.        
   That day the Lord made Joshua stand very high in the eyes of all Israel,      
and the people revered him, as they had revered Moses all his life.        
   The Lord said to Joshua, 'Command the priests carrying the Ark of the      
Tokens to come up from the Jordan.'  So Joshua commanded the priests      
to come up from the Jordan; and when the priest carrying the Ark of the        
Covenant of the Lord came up from the river-bed, they had no sooner set        
foot on dry land than the waters of the Jordan came back to their place and       
filled up all its reaches as before.  On the tenth day of the first month the        
people came up out of the Jordan and camped in Gilgal in the district east      
of Jericho, and there Joshua set up the twelve stones which they had taken      
from the Jordan.  He said to the Israelites, 'In days to come, when your        
descendants ask their fathers what these stones mean, you shall explain      
that the Jordan was dry when Israel crossed over, and that the Lord your      
God dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of you until you had gone      
across, just as the Lord your God did at the Red Sea when he dried it up       
for us until we had crossed.   Thus all people on earth will know how strong      
is the hand of the Lord; and thus they will  stand in awe of the Lord your       
God for ever.'        
5   When all the Amorite kings to the west of the Jordan and all the Canaan-     
ite kings by the sea-coast heard that the Lord had dried up the waters before       
the advance of the Israelites until they had crossed, their courage melted       
away and there was no more spirit left in them for fear of the Israelites.     
   At that time the Lord said to Joshua, 'Make knives of flint, seat yourself,     
and make Israel a circumcised people again.'  Joshua thereupon made knives       
of flint and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath-haaraloth.  This is why       
Joshua circumcised them: all the males who came out of Egypt, all the      
fighting men, had died in the wilderness during the journey.  For the Israelites         
travelled in the wilderness for forty years, until the whole nation, all the       
fighting men among them, had passed away, all who came out of Egypt        
and had disobeyed the voice of the Lord.  The Lord swore that he would      
not allow any of these to see the land which he had sworn to their fathers     
to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.  So it was their sons, whom       
he had raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised; they were un-          
circumcised because they had not been circumcised on the journey.  When       
the circumcision of the whole nation was complete, they stayed where they       
were in camp until they had recovered.  The Lord then said to Joshua,        
'Today I have rolled away from you the reproaches of the Egyptians.'        
Therefore the place is called Gilgal to this very day.             
   The Israelites encamped in Gilgal, and at sunset on the fourteenth day       
of the month they kept the Passover in the lowlands of Jericho.  On the day        
after Passover, they ate their unleavened cakes and parched grain, and         
that day it was the produce of the country.  It was from that day, when they      
first ate the produce of the country, that the manna ceased.  The Israelites      
received no more manna; and that year they ate what had grown in the      
land of Canaan.       
   When Joshua came near Jericho he looked up and saw a man standing in       
front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.  Joshua went up to him and        
said, 'Are you for us or for our enemies?'  And the man said to him, 'I am       
here as captain of the army of the Lord.'  Joshua fell down before him, face      
to the ground, and said, 'What have you to say to your servant, my lord?'            
The captain of the Lord's army said to him, 'Take off your sandals; the        
place where you are standing is holy'; and Joshua did so.   

The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970