13 While Yehoshua was in the Yericho area, he looked up and saw a man in front of him. The man had drawn his sword and was holding it in his hand so Yehoshua approached him and asked, “Are you on our side, or with our enemies?”

14 “No,” the man answered, “but I, the leader of Yahweh’s army, have come now.”

Then Yehoshua fell to his knees and bowed down with his face to the ground, and asked him, “What’s my master going to command to his servant?”

15 “Take off your sandals,” the commander of Yahweh’s army told him, “because the ground that you’re standing is holy.” So Yehoshua took them off.