Joshua 4
1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua:
2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one man from each tribe.
3 Command them: ‘Take twelve stones from here, from the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood firm. Carry them with you and set them down where you will spend the night.’”
4 Joshua called the twelve men he had appointed from among the Israelites, one man from each tribe.
5 Joshua said to them, “Go ahead of the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Let each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of Israel.
6 These stones will be a sign among you. In the future, your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’
7 Then you will tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ These stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.”
8 The Israelites did as Joshua had commanded. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, as the LORD had told Joshua, one for each of the tribes of Israel. They carried them with them to the place where they would spend the night and set them down there.
9 Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, at the place where the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant had stood. They are there to this day.
10 The priests carrying the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell the people was done, in keeping with everything Moses had commanded Joshua. The people hurried across.
11 When all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the LORD and the priests crossed over in front of the people.
12 The Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed in front of the Israelites, as Moses had told them.
13 About forty thousand armed men crossed over before the LORD for battle, toward the plains of Jericho.
14 That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they revered him as they had revered Moses, all the days of his life.
15 The LORD said to Joshua:
16 “Command the priests carrying the ark of the testimony to come up from the Jordan.”
17 Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up from the Jordan.”
18 When the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up from the middle of the Jordan and the soles of their feet touched dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and flowed as before, over all its banks.
19 The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and camped at Gilgal, on the eastern border of Jericho.
20 Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan.
21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future, your children will ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’
22 Then you will make your children understand: ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’
23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God did to the Reed Sea, which he dried up before us until we had crossed.
24 This was so that all the peoples of the earth would know how mighty the hand of the LORD is, and so that you would fear the LORD your God all your days.”
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