Joshua 4

1 And when all the people had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Take men from the people, one from each tribe, [a] 3 and charge them, saying: ‘Take up out of the middle of the Jordan twelve stones lying ready, and carry them across with you, and set them down in your camp, wherever you camp for the night.’” [b]

4 And Joshua called twelve men of standing from among the children of Israel, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go on ahead of me, in front of the Lord, into the middle of the Jordan, and let each man take up a stone from there and lift it onto his shoulders, according to the number of the twelve tribes of Israel, 6 so that these may stand as a sign for you for all time. And when your son asks you in time to come, ‘What are these stones to you?’ — 7 then you are to make it plain to your son: ‘The river Jordan failed before the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth, when it crossed over.’ And these stones will be a memorial for you, for the children of Israel, forever.”

8 And the children of Israel did so, as the Lord commanded Joshua: they took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, just as the Lord had ordered Joshua when the crossing of the children of Israel was finished, and they carried them across with them into the camp and laid them down there. 9 And Joshua set up another twelve stones in the Jordan itself, in the place under the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord; and they are there to this day.

10 And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood in the Jordan until Joshua had finished everything the Lord commanded him to tell the people; and the people hurried and crossed over. 11 And when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the covenant of the Lord crossed over too, and the stones went in front of them. [c]

12 And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh crossed over in battle order ahead of the children of Israel, as Moses had commanded them — 13 forty thousand men, lightly armed for battle, crossed over before the Lord to war, toward the city of Jericho. [d] 14 On that day the Lord made Joshua great in the sight of all the people of Israel, and they feared him as they had feared Moses, as long as he lived.

15 And the Lord said to Joshua, 16 “Charge the priests who carry the ark of the covenant of the witness of the Lord to come out of the Jordan.” 17 And Joshua charged the priests, saying, “Come out of the Jordan.”

18 And when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come out of the Jordan and set their feet on the ground, the water of the Jordan rushed back to its place and ran as it had run before, over all its banks. 19 And the people went up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month; and the children of Israel camped at Gilgal, in the region east of Jericho.

20 And those twelve stones, which he had taken out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal, 21 saying, “When your sons ask you, ‘What are these stones?’ — 22 tell your sons that Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground, 23 when the Lord our God dried up the water of the Jordan in front of them until they had crossed over — just as the Lord our God did to the Red Sea, which the Lord our God dried up in front of us until we had passed through — 24 so that all the nations of the earth may know that the power of the Lord is strong, and so that you may revere the Lord your God at all times.” [e]