Daily Reading for Thursday, August 12th, 2021

Reading 1, Joshua 3:7-10, 11, 13-17

⁷ Yahweh said to Joshua, 'This very day, I shall begin to make you great in the eyes of all Israel so that they will know that, as I was with Moses, so I shall be with you.

⁸ Now, give this order to the priests carrying the ark of the covenant, "When you have reached the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you must halt in the Jordan itself." '

⁹ To the Israelites, Joshua then said, 'Come closer and hear the words of Yahweh your God.'

¹⁰ Joshua said, 'By this, you are to know that the living God is with you and without a doubt will expel the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites before you.

¹¹ Look, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth is about to move into the Jordan at your head.

¹³ As soon as the priests carrying the ark of Yahweh, Lord of the whole earth, have set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off; the upper waters flowing down will stop as a single mass.'

¹⁴ Accordingly, when the people left their tents to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of the people.

¹⁵ As soon as the bearers of the ark reached the Jordan and the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the waters -- the Jordan is in spate throughout the harvest season-

¹⁶ the upper waters stood still and formed a single mass over a great distance, at Adam, the town near Zarethan, while those flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely separated. The people crossed opposite Jericho.

¹⁷ The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firm on dry ground in mid-Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until the whole nation had completed its crossing of the Jordan.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 114:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

¹ Alleluia! When Israel came out of Egypt, the House of Jacob from a people of foreign speech,

² Judah became his sanctuary, and Israel his domain.

³ The sea fled at the sight, the Jordan turned back,

⁴ the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like sheep.

⁵ Sea, what makes you flee? Jordan, why turn back?

⁶ Why skip like rams, you mountains? Why like sheep, you hills?

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