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.”

Footnotes 3

  • [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.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.