Joshua 4:3-20

3and command them, saying, ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in 1the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.’” 4So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; 5and Joshua said to them, “2Cross again to the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. 63Let this be a sign among you, so that 4when your children ask 5later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7then you shall say to them, ‘Because the 6waters 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.’ So these stones shall become a 7memorial to the sons of Israel forever.”

8Thus the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as the Lord spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel; and they carried them over with them to 8the lodging place and put them down there. 9Then Joshua set up twelve 9stones in the middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing, and they are there to this day. 10For the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed; 11and when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed before the people. 1210The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over in battle array before the sons of Israel, just as Moses had spoken to them; 13about 40,000 equipped for war, crossed for battle before the Lord to the desert plains of Jericho.

1411On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so that they 12revered him, just as they had 13revered Moses all the days of his life.

15Now the Lord said to 14Joshua, 16“Command the priests who carry 15the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan.” 17So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.” 18It came about when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were 16lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before.

19Now the people came up from the Jordan on the 17tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. 201819Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up 20at Gilgal.