Joshua 4

NSB^{(i) 1} All the people finished crossing the Jordan River. Then Jehovah spoke to Joshua: ² Take twelve men out of the people. Take a man out of every tribe. ³ Command them by saying: »Take twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm. Carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you stay tonight.« ⁴ Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared from the children of Israel, a man from every tribe. ⁵ Joshua said to them: »Pass over before the Ark of Jehovah your God to the middle of the Jordan River. Let every man take a stone on his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. ⁶ »This may be a sign among you when your children ask their fathers what is the meaning of these stones? ⁷ »You will answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah. When it passed over Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones will be for a memorial to the children of Israel for as long as they live.« ⁸ The children of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan. This was just as Jehovah spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. They carried them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there. ⁹ Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan River, in the place where the feet of the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant stood, and they are there to this day. ¹⁰ The priests who carried the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan River. They stood there until every thing that Jehovah commanded Joshua to speak to the people was carried out, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua. During this time the people hurried to the other side of the river. ¹¹ All the people crossed over. Then the priests, in the presence of the people, carried the Ark of Jehovah across. ¹² The children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spoke to them. ¹³ About forty thousand, prepared for war, passed over before Jehovah to do battle in the plains of Jericho. ¹⁴ On that day Jehovah exulted Joshua in the sight of all Israel. They feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life. ¹⁵ Jehovah spoke to Joshua, saying: ¹⁶ »Command the priests who carry the Ark of the Testimony that they come up from the Jordan.« ¹⁷ Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying: »Come up from the Jordan.« ¹⁸ When the priests that carried the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah were up out of the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up onto the dry land that the waters of Jordan returned to their place, and flowed over all its banks, as they did before. ¹⁹ The people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. ²⁰ Joshua set up the twelve stones they took out of the Jordan River, in Gilgal. ²¹ He spoke to the children of Israel: »When your children will ask their fathers in time to come, what these stones mean? ²² »Then you will let your children know, saying: Israel came over this Jordan River on dry land. ²³ »For Jehovah your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you, until you all crossed over. As Jehovah your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we crossed over. ²⁴ »That all the people of the earth might know the hand of Jehovah is mighty: that you might reverence Jehovah your God forever.«