Then Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders among you.”
- KJV And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.
- NKJV And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
- NASB Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do miracles among you.”
- NLT Then Joshua told the people, “Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Joshua commands the people to consecrate themselves, for the next day God will do wonders among them. Encounter with God's mighty acts calls for holiness.
Overview
To 'sanctify' or consecrate themselves meant ritual and moral preparation to meet the holy God (cf. Exodus 19:10-15). The promise that Yahweh 'will do wonders' builds anticipation for the miraculous crossing. The verse links experiencing God's power with a heart and life set apart for Him, a principle that endures for all who would witness His work.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Lev 20:7Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.
- Josh 7:13Get up and consecrate the people, saying, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Among you, O Israel, there are things devoted to destruction. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.
- 1 Sam 16:5“In peace,” he replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
- Joel 2:16Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.
- John 17:19For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.
- Exod 19:10–15Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes
- Lev 10:3Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when He said: ‘To those who come near Me I will show My holiness, and in the sight of all the people I will reveal My glory.’” But Aaron remained silent.
- Ps 86:10For You are great and perform wonders; You alone are God.
- Job 1:5And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
- Josh 3:13When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”
- Josh 3:15Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,
- Ps 114:1–7When Israel departed from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
- Num 11:8The people walked around and gathered it, ground it on a handmill or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil.
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Christ at the center
Joshua — the same name as Jesus, 'the LORD saves' — leads God's people into their inheritance, a shadow of the greater Joshua who brings us into the true rest and the promised land that remains.
How Joshua 3:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.