Joshua 4:1-24
4 And when all the nation were done crossing the Jordan, Jehovah spoke to Joshuaʽ, saying
2 “Take out of the people twelve men, on man out of a tribe,
3 * and give them the order ‘Take up from here, from the middle of the Jordan, from the standing-place of the priests’ feet, twelve stones, and take them over with you and put them down at the halting-place where you halt for the night.’”
4 And Joshuaʽ called the twelve men he had made ready out of the sons of Israel, one man out of a tribe;
5 and Joshuaʽ said to them “Go over before the ark of your God Jehovah to the middle of the Jordan and lift to your shoulders one stone each, for the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel,
6 in order that this may be a token among you, because your sons shall ask you tomorrow ‘What do you mean by these stones?’
7 * and you shall say ‘That the water of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of Jehovah’s covenant when it crossed the Jordan’; and these stones shall be a commemoration to the sons of Israel forever.”
8 An the sons of Israel did so, as Joshuaʽ had commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, as Jehovah had told Joshuaʽ, for the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel, and took them over with them to the halting-place and put them down there.
9 * And Joshuaʽ set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan on that standing-place of the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant, and they are there to this day.
10 And the priests who carried the ark stood still in the middle of the Jordan till all the matter that Jehovah commanded Joshuaʽ to tell the people was done; and the people went across in haste;
11 and when all the people were done crossing, the ark of Jehovah and the priests went across before the people.
12 And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh went across under arms before the sons of Israel as Moses had told them.
13 About forty thousand, armed for service, went across before Jehovah to the flats of Jericho to the war.
14 That day Jehovah made Joshuaʽ great before the eyes of all Israel; and they stood in fear of him as they had stood in fear of Moses as long as he lived.
15 And Jehovah spoke to Joshuaʽ, saying
16 “Give the priests who carry the ark of the Lessons the order to come up out of the Jordan.”
17 And Joshuaʽ gave the priests the order “Come up out of the Jordan”;
18 and when the priests who carried the ark of Jehovah’s covenant came up out of the middle of the Jordan, the priests’ feet were drawn out to the dry ground as the water of the Jordan came back to its place and ran as it had been doing, all over its flood-plain.
19 * And the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at the Gilgal, on the east edge of Jericho’s territory.
20 And Joshuaʽ set up at the Gilgal these twelve stones which they had taken out of the Jordan;
21 and he said to the sons of Israel “When hereafter your children ask their fathers ‘What do these stones mean?’
22 you are to inform your children ‘On dry ground Israel came across this Jordan,’
23 because your God Jehovah dried up the water of the Jordan before you till you had come across, as your God Jehovah did to the Red Sea, which he dried up before you till you had come across,
24 * in order that all the peoples of the earth might know Jehovah’s hand was strong, in order that you might fear your God Jehovah evermore.”
Footnotes
^ 4:3 Codd. feet, in preparation, twelve
^ 4:7 Or passed into the Jordan
^ 4:9 Lit. under the standing-place or instead of the standingplace
^ 4:19 Lit. of Jericho. And
^ 4:24 Conj. they might
