Joshua 4:16-24

16 “Command the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant to come up out of the riverbed.”

17 So Joshua gave the command.

18 As soon as the priests carrying the Ark of the LORD ’s Covenant came up out of the riverbed and their feet were on high ground, the water of the Jordan returned and overflowed its banks as before.

19 The people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. Then they camped at Gilgal, just east of Jericho.

20 It was there at Gilgal that Joshua piled up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan River.

21 Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’

22 Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’

23 For the LORD your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over.

24 He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the LORD ’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the LORD your God forever.”

Joshua 4:16-24 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew Ark of the Testimony.
• [b]. This day in the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar occurred in late March, April, or early May.
• [c]. Hebrew sea of reeds.