﻿Joshua.
Chapter 4.
When the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua: 
“Choose twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, 
and command them, ‘Take up twelve stones from here, from the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stand firmly. Carry them over with you and lay them down at the place where you will lodge tonight.’” 
So Joshua called the twelve men he had appointed from the people of Israel, one man from each tribe. 
Joshua said to them, “Cross over ahead of the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, 
so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in days to come, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 
tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ These stones will be a memorial for the people of Israel forever.” 
The people of Israel did as Joshua commanded. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, as the LORD had told Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel. They carried them over with them to their lodging place and laid them down there. 
Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant had stood. They are there to this day. 
The priests carrying the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell the people was completed, in keeping with all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people hurried across. 
When all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the LORD and the priests crossed over in the sight of the people. 
The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed ahead of the people of Israel, as Moses had told them. 
About forty thousand men equipped for war crossed over before the LORD for battle, to the plains of Jericho. 
On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel. They feared him all the days of his life, just as they had feared Moses. 
The LORD said to Joshua: 
“Command the priests carrying the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.” 
So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” 
When the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted onto dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and flowed over all its banks as before. 
The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and camped at Gilgal, on the eastern edge of Jericho. 
Joshua set up at Gilgal those twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan. 
He said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in days to come, ‘What are these stones?’ 
you must tell your children, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’ 
For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us until we had crossed, 
so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, and so that you may fear the LORD your God all your days.” 
