Chapter 4

¹And when they were passed over, the Lord said to Josue: ²Choose twelve men, one of every tribe: ³And command them to take out of the midst of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood, twelve very hard stones, which you shall set in the place of the camp, where you shall pitch your tents this night. ⁴And Josue called twelve men, whom he had chosen out of the children of Israel, one out of every tribe, ⁵And he said to them: Go before the ark of the Lord your God to the midst of the Jordan, and carry from thence every man a stone on your shoulders, according to the number of the children of Israel, ⁶That it may be a sign among you end when your children shall ask you to morrow, saying: What mean these stones? ⁷You shall answer them: The waters of the Jordan ran off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, when it passed over the same: therefore were these atones set for a monument of the children of Israel for ever. ⁸The children of Israel therefore did as Josue commanded them, carrying out of the channel of the Jordan twelve stones, as the Lord had commanded him, according to the number of the children of Israel, unto the place wherein they camped, and there they set them. ⁹And Josue put other twelve stones in the midst of the channel of the Jordan, where the priests stood that carried the ark of the covenant: and they are there until this present day. ¹⁰Now the priests that carried the ark, stood in the midst of the Jordan till all things were accomplished which the Lord had commanded Josue to speak to the people, and Moses had said to him. And the people made haste and passed over. ¹¹And when they had all passed over, the ark also of the Lord passed over, and the priests went before the people. ¹²The children of Ruben also and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasses, went armed before the children of Israel as Moses had commanded them. ¹³And forty thousand fighting men by their troops, and bands, marched through the plains and fields of the city of Jericho. ¹⁴In that day the Lord magnified Josue in the sight of all Israel, that they should fear him, as they had feared Moses, while he lived. ¹⁵And he said to him: ¹⁶Command the priests, that carry the ark of the covenant, to come up out of the Jordan. ¹⁷And he commanded them, saying: Come ye up out of the Jordan. ¹⁸And when they that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, were come up, and began to tread on the dry ground, the waters returned into the channel, and ran as they were wont before. ¹⁹And the people came up out of the Jordan, the tenth day of the first month, and camped in Galgal, over against the east side of the city of Jericho. ²⁰And the twelve stones which they had taken out of the channel of the Jordan, Josue pitched in Galgal, ²¹And said to the children of Israel: When your children shall ask their fathers, to morrow, and shall say to them: What mean these stones? ²²You shall teach them and say: Israel passed over this Jordan through the dry channel. ²³The Lord your God drying up the waters thereof in your sight, until you passed over: ²⁴As he had done before in the Red Sea, which he dried up till we passed through : ²⁵That all the people of the earth may learn the most mighty hand of the Lord, that you also may fear the Lord your God for ever.