Joshua 4:11-21

11 and when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the LORD and the priests passed over before the people.

12 The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manas'seh passed over armed before the people of Israel, as Moses had bidden them;

13 about forty thousand ready armed for war passed over before the LORD for battle, to the plains of Jericho.

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

15 And the LORD said to Joshua,

16 "Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan."

17 Joshua therefore commanded the priests, "Come up out of the Jordan."

18 And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before.

19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.

20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal.

21 And he said to the people of Israel, "When your children ask their fathers in time to come, 'What do these stones mean?'

Joshua 4:11-21 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.