His servant Moses dead, the Lord gave a charge to Josue, son of Nun, that till now had waited on Moses’ needs.

Now that my servant Moses is dead, he told him, it is for thee to cross yonder stream of Jordan, taking the Israelites with thee into the land I am giving them for their own.

My promise to Moses holds good; there is no piece of ground your feet shall tread but I will make it yours,

all the Hethite country, that has the desert, and Lebanon, and the great river Euphrates, and the open sea on the west for its frontiers.

While thou yet livest, there shall be no withstanding Israel’s onset; I will be with thee as with Moses, never leave nor let thee.

Courage, then, play the man; thy task is to divide up this land between the tribes, my promised gift to their fathers.

Play the man thou must, and keep thy courage high, carrying out faithfully the law my servant Moses enjoined on thee; never swerve to right or left, and thou shalt order thy life truly.

The law thou hast in writing must govern every utterance of thine; night and day thou must ponder over it, so as to carry out all the terms of it faithfully; so wilt thou guide thy steps truly and prosper.

Courage and a man’s part, that is what I ask of thee; no room for fear and shrinking back, when the Lord thy God is at thy side wherever thou goest.

And now Josue bade the chieftains make their way through the midst of the camp, giving the people orders

to prepare themselves food; in two days’ time they were to cross the Jordan and set about conquering the land which the Lord would make their home.

And he warned Ruben and Gad, and the separate half of Manasses,

Do not forget the message that was given you by Moses, the Lord’s own servant. The Lord your God, he told you, has granted you secure possession of all that is yours.

In that land which Moses assigned to you beyond Jordan your wives and children and cattle shall await you, while you that are warriors go over in the van of your brethren, and fight in their cause.

A day will come when the Lord your God will give them, too, undisturbed possession of their appointed home; then you shall go back and settle in your own lands, where the Lord’s servant Moses assigned them to you, east of Jordan.

And they answered, We will do all thy bidding, go out upon all thy errands,

obey thee as we obeyed Moses in all things. And may the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses.

Whoever thwarts thy will or refuses to obey any order of thine shall die for it; courage, then, play the man.