Joshua 4
4
The People Set Up a Monument
1After Israel had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua:
2-3Tell#4.1-3 Joshua … Tell: Or “Joshua, you and the other leaders must tell.” one man from each of the twelve tribes to pick up a large rock from where the priests are standing. Then tell the men to set up those rocks as a monument at the place where you camp tonight.
4Joshua chose twelve men; then he called them together 5and said:
Go to the middle of the riverbed where the sacred chest is, and pick up a large rock. Carry it on your shoulder to our camp. There are twelve of you, so there will be one rock for each tribe. 6-7Someday your children will ask, “Why are these rocks here?” Then you can tell them how the water stopped flowing when the chest was being carried across the river. These rocks will always remind our people of what happened here today.
8The men followed the instructions that the Lord had given Joshua. They picked up twelve rocks, one for each tribe, and carried them to the camp, where they put them down.
9Joshua set up a monument next to the place where the priests were standing. This monument was also made of twelve large rocks, and it is still there in the middle of the river.
The People of Israel Set Up Camp at Gilgal
10-13The army got ready for battle and crossed the Jordan with everyone else. They marched quickly past the sacred chest#4.10-13 the sacred chest: The Hebrew text has “the Lord.” The army was marching past the sacred chest, which was a symbol of God's throne on earth (see 1 Samuel 4.4 and Exodus 25.10-22; 37.1-9). and into the desert near Jericho. Forty thousand soldiers from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh#4.10-13 Forty thousand soldiers from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh: Or “There were forty thousand soldiers altogether, and those from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh.” led the way, as Moses had ordered.#4.10-13 Moses … ordered: See Numbers 32.16-32; Joshua 1.12-16.
The priests stayed right where they were until the people had followed the orders that the Lord had given Moses and Joshua. Then they watched as the priests carried the chest the rest of the way across.
14-18“Joshua,” the Lord said, “tell the priests to come up from the Jordan and bring the chest with them.” So Joshua went over to the priests and told them what the Lord had said. And as soon as the priests carried the chest past the highest place that the floodwaters of the Jordan had reached, the river flooded its banks again.
That's how the Lord showed the Israelites that Joshua was their leader.#4.14-18 leader: See 3.7. For the rest of Joshua's life, they respected him as they had respected Moses.
19It was the tenth day of the first month#4.19 first month: Abib (also called Nisan), the first month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-March to mid-April. of the year when Israel crossed the Jordan River. They set up camp at Gilgal, which was east of the land controlled by Jericho. 20The men who had carried the twelve rocks from the Jordan brought them to Joshua, and they made them into a monument. 21Then Joshua told the people:
Years from now your children will ask you why these rocks are here. 22-23Tell them, “The Lord our God dried up the Jordan River so we could walk across. He did the same thing here for us that he did for our people at the Red Sea,#4.22,23 Red Sea: See the note at 2.10. 24because he wants everyone on earth to know how powerful he is. And he wants us to worship only him.”
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Joshua 4: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Joshua 4
4
1And it came to pass when the whole nation had completely gone over the Jordan, that Jehovah spoke to Joshua, saying, 2Take you twelve men out of the people, one man out of every tribe, 3and command them, saying, Take up hence out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging-place where ye shall lodge this night. 4And Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had appointed of the children of Israel, a man out of every tribe; 5and Joshua said to them, Pass before the ark of Jehovah your God#GodHebrew: Elohim into the midst of the Jordan, and lift up each of you a stone and put it upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, 6that this may be a sign in your midst. When your children ask hereafter, saying, What mean ye by these stones? 7then ye shall say to them, That the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah; when it went through the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. 8And the children of Israel did so, as Joshua had commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, as Jehovah had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the lodging-place, and laid them down there. 9And twelve stones did Joshua set up in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant had stood firm; and they are there to this day.
10And the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan, until everything was finished that Jehovah had commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hasted and passed over. 11And it came to pass, when all the people had completely gone over, that the ark of Jehovah went over, and the priests, in the presence of the people. 12And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, went over in array before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them. 13About forty thousand armed for military service passed over before Jehovah to the war, unto the plains of Jericho. 14On that day Jehovah magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life. 15And Jehovah spoke to Joshua, saying, 16Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of the Jordan. 17And Joshua commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan. 18And it came to pass when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah had come up out of the midst of the Jordan, when the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up on to the dry land, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and they flowed as previously, over all its banks. 19And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the eastern extremity of Jericho.
20And those twelve stones which they had taken out of the Jordan did Joshua set up in Gilgal. 21And he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children hereafter ask their fathers, saying, What mean these stones? 22then ye shall let your children know, saying, On dry land did Israel come over this Jordan; 23because Jehovah your God#GodHebrew: Elohim dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you, until ye had passed over, as Jehovah your God#GodHebrew: Elohim did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we had passed over; 24that all peoples of the earth might know the hand of Jehovah, that it is mighty; that ye might fear Jehovah your God#GodHebrew: Elohim continually.
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.