Joshua 4:13-23

13 About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for war.

14 That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses.

15 Then the LORD said to Joshua,

16 “Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant law to come up out of the Jordan.”

17 So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”

18 And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.

19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.

20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan.

21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’

22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’

23 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea^[a] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.

Joshua 4:13-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 4

This chapter relates an order, that is men, should take twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, and carry them to the first place they lodged at as a memorial of their passage over it, Jos 4:1-8; and how Joshua set up twelve other stones in the river itself, Jos 4:9; and how many of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, went before the Israelites when they passed over, Jos 4:10-14; which being done, the priests were ordered to come out of Jordan, when the waters returned to their place, Jos 4:15-18; The time when this miracle was wrought is observed, Jos 4:19; and an account is given of Joshua's pitching the twelve stones taken out of Jordan in Gilgal, and the use they were to be of in future time, Jos 4:20-24.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 13:18
• 2. S Numbers 32:17
• 3. S Joshua 3:7
• 4. Exodus 25:22
• 5. Exodus 14:27
• 6. S Joshua 3:15
• 7. S Deuteronomy 11:30; Joshua 5:9
• 8. ver 3,8
• 9. S ver 6
• 10. S Exodus 14:22; Joshua 3:17
• 11. Exodus 14:19-22; Exodus 14:21

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "the Sea of Reeds"