Joshua 4:2

2 "Take for yourselves from the people twelve men, a man from every tribe;

Joshua 4:2 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 4:2

Take you twelve men out of the people
Joshua had before this ordered twelve men to be taken from among them, which seems to have been done of himself; and now he has a direction from God for it, and what to employ them in:

out of every tribe a man;
so that what they did was in the name of the several tribes, and as representing them.

Joshua 4:2 In-Context

1 After the whole nation had finished crossing the Yarden, ADONAI said to Y'hoshua,

2 "Take for yourselves from the people twelve men, a man from every tribe;

3 and give them this order: 'Take twelve stones from the middle of the Yarden riverbed, where the cohanim are standing, carry them over with you and set them down in the place where you will camp tonight.'"

4 Y'hoshua called the twelve men whom he had chosen from the people of Isra'el, a man from every tribe,

5 and said to them, "Go on ahead of the ark of ADONAI your God into the riverbed of the Yarden. Then, each of you take a stone on his shoulder, corresponding to the number of tribes of the people of Isra'el.