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Twelve Stones Set Up at Gilgal

When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the L ord said to Joshua: ²“Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe, ³and command them, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight.’ ” ⁴Then Joshua summoned the twelve men from the Israelites, whom he had appointed, one from each tribe. ⁵Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the L ord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites, ⁶so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ ⁷then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the L ord. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial forever.”

⁸ The Israelites did as Joshua commanded. They took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the L ord told Joshua, carried them over with them to the place where they camped, and laid them down there. ⁹(Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.)

¹⁰ The priests who bore the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan, until everything was finished that the L ord commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people crossed over in haste. ¹¹As soon as all the people had finished crossing over, the ark of the L ord, and the priests, crossed over in front of the people. ¹²The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the Israelites, as Moses had ordered them. ¹³About forty thousand armed for war crossed over before the L ord to the plains of Jericho for battle.

¹⁴ On that day the L ord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him, as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.

¹⁵ The L ord said to Joshua, ¹⁶“Command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, to come up out of the Jordan.” ¹⁷Joshua therefore commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” ¹⁸When the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the L ord came up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet touched dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before.

¹⁹ The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. ²⁰Those twelve stones, which they had taken out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal, ²¹saying to the Israelites, “When your children ask their parents in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²²then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel crossed over the Jordan here on dry ground.’ ²³For the L ord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you crossed over, as the L ord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we crossed over, ²⁴so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the L ord is mighty, and so that you may fear the L ord your God forever.”

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

9. And Joshua set up twelve stones, etc Apparently there was no use of stones under the water, and it may therefore seem to have been absurd to bury stones at a depth. The others which were placed in Gilgal being publicly visible, furnished occasion for inquiry; but stones hidden from the eyes of men at the bottom of the water could have no effect in inciting their minds. I admit that a monument altogether buried in silence would have been useless. ⁵¹⁵¹ French, “Or je confesse bien que c’eust este un tesmoignage du tout inutile, si on l’eust laisse la comme enseveli sans en parler;” “Now, I confess, that it would have been an entirely useless testimony had they left it there, as it were, buried without speaking of it.” — Ed. But when they talked among themselves of the evidence of the passage left there, the hearing even of what they did not see, strongly tended to confirm their faith. The ark of the covenant was shut up in the sanctuary and covered by a veil placed over against it, and yet its hidden splendor was not without benefit, when they learned from the Law that the covenant of God was deposited in it. It might also happen, that when the river was low, the tops of the heap would sometimes appear. But what I have already said is more probable, that though Joshua buried the stones in the middle of the stream, he did a useful act by establishing a testimony in presence of the people, which would afterwards become the subject of general conversation.

⁵¹ French, “Or je confesse bien que c’eust este un tesmoignage du tout inutile, si on l’eust laisse la comme enseveli sans en parler;” “Now, I confess, that it would have been an entirely useless testimony had they left it there, as it were, buried without speaking of it.” — Ed.