Joshua 4:11-21

11 When all the people had finished crossing, the ark of ADONAI passed on, and the cohanim, ahead of the people.

12 The descendants of Re'uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M'nasheh went on, armed, ahead of the people of Isra'el, as Moshe had said to them;

13 some 40,000 armed soldiers ready for battle crossed in the presence of ADONAI to the plains of Yericho.

14 That day ADONAI made Y'hoshua great in full view of all Isra'el. They were in awe of him, just as they had been in awe of Moshe all his life.

15 ADONAI said to Y'hoshua,

16 "Order the cohanim carrying the ark for the testimony to come up out of the Yarden."

17 So Y'hoshua ordered the cohanim, "Come up out of the Yarden!"

18 The cohanim carrying the ark for the covenant of ADONAI came up from the Yarden riverbed, and as soon as the soles of the feet of the cohanim touched dry ground, the water of the Yarden returned to its place and the river overflowed its banks as it had before.

19 The people came up out of the Yarden on the tenth day of the first month and camped at Gilgal, by the eastern boundary of Yericho.

20 Those twelve stones which they took out of the Yarden, Y'hoshua piled up at Gilgal.

21 Then he said to the people of Isra'el, "In the future, when your children ask their fathers what 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.