Joshua 4:15

9 Joshua also erected twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan under the station of the feet of the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant, and they have remained there even to this day. 10 And the priests, bearing the ark, kept standing in the midst of the Jordan, till all the speech which Jehovah had commanded Joshua to speak to the people was finished; exactly as Moses had commanded Joshua himself: but the people made haste in passing. 11 And when the whole people had made an end of passing, the ark of Jehovah passed, and the priests in presence of the people. 12 The children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh also passed over armed before the children of Israel; in like manner as Moses had spoken to them. 13 Forty thousand armed men passed over in presence of Jehovah to battle to the plains of Jericho. 14 On that day Jehovah magnified Joshua in the eyes of all Israel, and they feared him just as they had feared Moses all the days of his life. 15 And Jehovah spoke unto Joshua, saying, 16 Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to ascend from the Jordan. 17 And Joshua commanded the priests, saying, Ascend from the Jordan.

4:10-19 The priests with the ark did not stir till ordered to move. Let none be weary of waiting, while they have the tokens of God's presence with them, even the ark of the covenant, though it be in the depths of adversity. Notice is taken of the honour put upon Joshua. Those are feared in the best manner, and to the best purpose, who make it appear that God is with them, and that they set him before them.

Jos 4:14-24. God Magnifies Joshua. 14-17. On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel—It appeared clear from the chief part he acted, that he was the divinely appointed leader; for even the priests did not enter the river or quit their position, except at his command; and thenceforward his authority was as firmly established as that of his predecessor.

The passage of the priests to the further bank had been already referred to, Joshua 4:11 ; but the writer, in observance of his general plan (compare introductory remarks to Joshua 3 ), re-introduces it here as the leading feature in the concluding section of his account, and (as before) with mention of God's special direction about it. The statement that on the removal of the ark the waters of Jordan at once returned to their former level Joshua 4:18 , heightens the impression which is especially inculcated throughout - that the whole transaction was extraordinary and miraculous. The details and incidents of the passage are no doubt open to manifold discussion: but all such discussion will be futile unless it proceed throughout on the admission that we have here before us the record of a distinctly supernatural interposition: compare the introduction to the Book of Joshua.

Verse 15. - And the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying. Meyer and others, according to the method of a certain school, regard this as an extract from another document, which is equivalent to saying that the Book of Joshua is a compilation of the most unintelligent kind, a conclusion which is refuted by every line of the Book. A vivid and picturesque narrative, such as we have before us, could hardly have Been brought together by the liberal use of scissors and paste, with utter disregard of the coherence of the extracts. It is not denied that the writer Of the Book of Joshua may have compiled his history from contemporary documents (see Introduction). All that is affirmed is that in so doing he used his materials with ordinary common sense. As has been before remarked, a marked feature of early Hebrew composition was repetition; repetition with additional details to add to the completeness of the narrative, but designed principally to emphasise the principal facts. Thus we are now told that it was at the command of Joshua, on God's express intimation, that the priests left their post. And to mark more clearly the historian's sense of the importance of the miracle, it is added that, as soon as the priests' feet had left the channel in which the waters had flowed up to the moment that they entered the waters of Jordan on the other side, the waters which had been cut off returned, and flowed exactly where they had done before.

This additional fact, supplementing as it does the briefer detail in Joshua 3:17 and Joshua 4:11 , must be therefore regarded as a record of the solemn conviction of the historian that in the events he is narrating he recognised a special interposition of the hand of God (see vers. 23, 24), in which in like manner we find a repetition in fuller detail of the command concerning the stones, designed to mark more clearly the sense the historian wishes his readers to have of the direct interference of God in what he has recorded. Joshua 4:15

Termination of the miraculous Passage through the Jordan. - As soon as the priests left their standing-place in the river with the ark of the covenant, according to the command of God made known to them by Joshua, and the soles of their feet "tore themselves loose upon the dry ground" (נתּקוּ אל החרבה, constructio praegnans, for they tore themselves loose from the soft soil of the river, and trode upon the dry or firm ground), the waters of the Jordan returned again to their place, and went over all its banks as before (vid., Joshua 3:15 ). This affirms as clearly as possible that it was the ark which kept back the stream.

[Reformed Biblical] In this sense the same phrase is used, #Joshua 4:3,8 ; for certainly those stones which were to be witnesses and monuments of their passage over Jordan should not be taken from the brink or brim of the river, or from the shore which Jordan overflowed only at that season, but from the most inward and deepest parts of the river; and #Joshua 3:16-17 , where the priests are said to ascend or come up out of Jordan , and out of the midst of Jordan unto the dry land ; whereas had this been meant only of the first entrance into the river, they must have been said first to go down into Jordan , and then to go up to the land . ## JOSHUA CHAPTER 4 God commands them to carry twelve stones for a memorial out of Jordan; Joshua orders it; the people perform, #Joshua 4:1-8 . Twelve other stones set up for a memorial in the midst of Jordan, #Joshua 4:9 . The people pass over: the order they observe, #Joshua 4:10-13 . God magnifies Joshua, #Joshua 4:14 . The priests with the ark are commanded to come up out of Jordan, #Joshua 4:15-17 . The waters ## return, #Joshua 4:18 . The time of this passage, #Joshua 4:19 . Twelve stones set up in Gilgal; to what purpose declared, #Joshua 4:20-24 . ## Ver. 1. This was commanded before, #Joshua 3:12 , and is here repeated with enlargement, as being now to be put in execution. Ver. 2. For the greater evidence and certainty, and the more effectual spreading of the report of this marvellous work among all the tribes. ## Ver. 3.

that this may be a sign in your midst. When your children ask hereafter, saying, What mean ye by these stones? then ye shall say to them, That the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah; when it went through the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. And the children of Israel did so, as Joshua had commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, as Jehovah had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the lodging-place, and laid them down there. And twelve stones did Joshua set up in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant had stood firm; and they are there to this day. And the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan, until everything was finished that Jehovah had commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hasted and passed over. And it came to pass, when all the people had completely gone over, that the ark of Jehovah went over, and the priests, in the presence of the people. And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, went over in array before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them.