Joshua 4

Revised Geneva Translation

4 And when all the people had fully gone over the Jordan (after the LORD had spoken to Joshua, saying,

² “Take with you twelve men out of the people, a man out of every tribe,

³ “and command them, saying, ‘Take from the midst of the Jordan — out of the place where the priests stood firmly — twelve stones, which you shall take away with you. And leave them in the lodging where you shall lodge this night.’”),

⁴ then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had prepared from the children of Israel, a man out of every tribe.

⁵ And Joshua said to them, “Go over before the Ark of the LORD your God, through the midst of the Jordan. And every man take up for himself a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel.

⁶ “So that this may be a sign among you. So that when your children shall ask their fathers in times to come, saying, ‘What did you mean by these stones?’,

⁷ “then you may answer them, ‘So that the waters of the Jordan would be cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD. When it passed through the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. Therefore, these stones are a memorial to the children of Israel, forever.’”

⁸ Then the children of Israel did as Joshua had commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan — as the LORD had said to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel — and carried them away with them to the lodging and laid them down there.

⁹ And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant stood. And there they have remained to this day.

¹⁰ So the priests who bore the Ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the LORD had commanded Joshua to say to the people, according to all that Moses charged Joshua. Then the people hurried and went over.

¹¹ When all the people had completely passed over, the Ark of the LORD also went over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.

¹² And the sons of Reuben, and the sons of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh went over before the children of Israel, armed, as Moses had charged them.

¹³ Forty thousand, prepared for war, went before the LORD to battle, into the plain of Jericho.

¹⁴ That day, the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel. And they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.

¹⁵ And the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying,

¹⁶ “Command the priests who bear the Ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan.”

¹⁷ Joshua, therefore, commanded the priests, saying, “Come up out of the Jordan.”

¹⁸ And when the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD had come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and as soon as the soles of the priests’ feet were set on the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and flowed over all its banks, as they did before.

¹⁹ So the people came up out of the Jordan, on the tenth of the first month, and pitched in Gilgal, on the East side of Jericho.

²⁰ Also, the twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan Joshua pitched in Gilgal.

²¹ And he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, “When your children shall ask their fathers in times to come, and say, ‘What do these stones mean?’,

²² “then you shall make it known to your children, and say, ‘Israel came over the Jordan on dry land.

²³ ‘For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you, until you had gone over, as the LORD your God did the Red Sea (which He dried up before us until we had gone over),

²⁴ ‘so that all the people of the world may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, so that you might fear the LORD your God continually.’”