Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging ¹  report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through ²  to investigate is a land that devours ³  its inhabitants. ⁴  All the people we saw there ⁵  are of great stature.

You will by no means enter into the land where ¹  I swore ²  to settle ³  you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

“This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded: ‘Instruct ¹  the Israelites to bring ²  you a red ³  heifer ⁴  without blemish, which has no defect ⁵  and has never carried a yoke.

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then those whom you allow to remain will be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your side, and will cause you trouble in the land where you will be living.

The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there ¹  until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil.

Therefore do not defile the land that you will inhabit, in which I live, for I the Lord live among the Israelites.”

So all of you approached me and said, “Let’s send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.”

The exception is Caleb son of Jephunneh; ¹  he will see it and I will give him and his descendants the territory on which he has walked, because he has wholeheartedly followed me.” ² 

Nobody will be able to resist you; the Lord your God will spread the fear and terror of you over the whole land on which you walk, just as he promised you.

you must by all means ¹  slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate ²  with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock.

When you come to the land the Lord your God is giving you and take it over and live in it and then say, “I will select a king like all the nations surrounding me,”

Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse ¹  must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke –

If a man marries a woman and she does not please him because he has found something offensive ¹  in her, then he may draw up a divorce document, give it to her, and evict her from his house.

The generation to come – your descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places – will see ¹  the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the Lord has brought on it.

The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ¹ 

But stay about three thousand feet behind it. ¹  Keep your distance ²  so you can see ³  which way you should go, for you have not traveled this way before.”

The city and all that is in it must be set apart for the Lord, ¹  except for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house, because she hid the spies ²  we sent.

That day Joshua captured Makkedah and put the sword to it and its king. He annihilated everyone who lived in it; he left no survivors. He did to its king what he had done to the king of Jericho. ¹ 

The Lord handed Lachish over to Israel and they ¹  captured it on the second day. They put the sword to all who lived there, just as they had done to Libnah.

They ¹  captured it, its king, and all its surrounding cities and put the sword to them. They annihilated everyone who lived there; they ²  left no survivors. They ³  did to Debir and its king what they ⁴  had done to Libnah and its king and to Hebron. ⁵