Joshua 4

¹ When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, Yahweh spoke to Joshua,

² ‘Choose out twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe,

³ and give them this command: “Take from here, from mid-Jordan, twelve stones; carry them with you and set them down in the camp where you pass the night”‘.

⁴ Joshua called the twelve men he had marked out among the Israelites, one man for each tribe,

⁵ and told them, ‘Pass on before the ark of Yahweh your God into mid-Jordan, and each of you take one stone on his shoulder, matching the number of the tribes of Israel,

⁶ to make a memorial of this in your midst; for when in days to come your children ask you, “What do these stones mean for you?”,

⁷ you will tell them, “The waters of the Jordan separated in front of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the river vanished. These stones are an everlasting reminder of this to the Israelites.”‘

⁸ The Israelites did as Joshua told them; they took twelve stones from mid-Jordan to match the number of the tribes of Israel, as Yahweh had told Joshua; they carried them over to the camp and set them down there.

⁹ Then Joshua set up twelve stones in mid-Jordan in the spot where the feet of the priests who carried the ark had rested; they are there even now[*a].

¹⁰ The priests carrying the ark stood still in mid-Jordan until everything was done that Yahweh had directed Joshua to tell the people, all as Moses had instructed Joshua; and the people hurried across.

¹¹ When they were all over, the ark of Yahweh then crossed, with the priests at the head of the people.

¹² The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed in front of the Israelites, as Moses had ordered them.

¹³ They were some forty thousand warriors in arms, and they crossed before Yahweh, ready for battle, towards the plain of Jericho.

¹⁴ That day Yahweh made Joshua great in the sight of all Israel, and they honoured him as they had honoured Moses as long as he lived.

¹⁵ Yahweh said to Joshua

¹⁶ ‘Tell the priests carrying the ark of the testimony to come up from the Jordan”,

¹⁷ And Joshua commanded the priests: ‘Come up from the Jordan!’

¹⁸ Now when the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came up from the Jordan, their feet had no sooner touched the bank than the waters of the Jordan returned to their bed and ran on overflowing as before.

¹⁹ It was the tenth day of the first month when the people came up from the Jordan and made their camp at Gilgal, east of Jericho.

²⁰ As for the twelve stones that had been taken from the Jordan, Joshua set them up at Gilgal.

²¹ Then he said to the Israelites, ‘When your children in days to come ask their fathers, “What is the meaning of these stones?”

²² tell them this, “You see the Jordan. Israel crossed over it dry-shod,

²³ because Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of you until you had crossed, just as Yahweh your God had done with the Sea of Reeds, which he dried up before us till we had crossed it;

²⁴ so that all the peoples of the earth may recognise how mighty the hand of Yahweh is, and that you yourselves may always stand in awe of Yahweh your God.”‘