Joshua 4:3

3 and command ye them, saying, `Take you hence out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones; and ye shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where ye shall lodge this night.'"

Joshua 4:3 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 4:3

And command you them, saying
As follows:

take you hence out of the midst of Jordan;
so that they were obliged to go back into the midst of Jordan, having already passed over it, as appears from ( Joshua 4:1 ) ;

out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm;
where being stones, they chose to stand upon them, and which were a firm standing for them; and which secured them from the slime and mud at the bottom of the river the waters left behind; though it is not absolutely necessary to understand it that they were to take, and did take, the stones from under their feet, but those that lay about the place where they stood:

twelve stones;
each man a stone; and, according to the Samaritan Chronicle F6, every man inscribed his name on the stone:

and ye shall carry them over with you;
from the place they took them up, to the place they should next stop at:

and leave them in the lodging place where you shall lodge this night:
which was in the place afterwards called Gilgal, ( Joshua 4:19 Joshua 4:20 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F6 Apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. p. 500, 503.

Joshua 4:3 In-Context

1 And it came to pass, when all the people had clean passed over the Jordan, that the LORD spoke unto Joshua, saying,
2 "Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,
3 and command ye them, saying, `Take you hence out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones; and ye shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where ye shall lodge this night.'"
4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man.
5 And Joshua said unto them, "Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel,
Third Millennium Bible (TMB), New Authorized Version, Copyright 1998 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved.