After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant:
1:1. “My servant Moses is dead. Prepare to cross the Jordan, together with all this people, into the land which I am giving to the Israelites.
1:2. Every spot on which your foot treads I give to you, as I promised Moses.
1:3. Your territory shall extend from the wilderness and the Lebanon to the Great River, the River Euphrates [on the east] — the whole Hittite country — and up to the Mediterranean Sea on the west.
1:4. No man shall be able to resist you as long as you live. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
1:5. “Be strong and resolute, for you shall apportion to this people the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.
1:6. But you must be very strong and resolute to observe faithfully all the Teaching that My servant Moses enjoined upon you. Do not deviate from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
1:7. Let not this Book of the Teaching cease from your lips, but recite it day and night, so that you may observe faithfully all that is written in it. Only then will you prosper in your undertakings and only then will you be successful.
1:8. “I charge you: Be strong and resolute; do not be terrified or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
1:9. Joshua thereupon gave orders to the officials of the people:
1:10. “Go through the camp and charge the people thus: Get provisions ready, for in three days’ time you are to cross the Jordan, in order to enter and occupy the land which the LORD your God is giving you as a possession.”
1:11. Then Joshua said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh,
1:12. “Remember what Moses the servant of the LORD enjoined upon you, when he said: ‘The LORD your God is granting you a haven; He is assigning this territory to you.’
1:13. Let your wives, children, and livestock remain in the land which Moses assigned to you on this side of the Jordan; but every one of your fighting men shall go across armed in the van of your kinsmen. And you shall assist them
1:14. until the LORD has given your kinsmen a haven, such as you have, and they too have gained possession of the land which the LORD your God has assigned to them. Then you may return to the land on the east side of the Jordan, which Moses the servant of the LORD assigned to you as your possession, and you may occupy it.”
1:15. They answered Joshua, “We will do everything you have commanded us and we will go wherever you send us.
1:16. We will obey you just as we obeyed Moses; let but the LORD your God be with you as He was with Moses!
1:17. Any man who flouts your commands and does not obey every order you give him shall be put to death. Only be strong and resolute!”
This English translation is reprinted with permission from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures published by the Jewish Publication Society.
Sephardic
Pronounced: seh-FAR-dik, Origin: Hebrew, describing Jews descending from the Jews of Spain.
Torah
Pronunced: TORE-uh, Origin: Hebrew, the Five Books of Moses.
