Joshua 4:5

As follows: take you hence out of the midst of Jordan; so that they were obliged to go back into the midst of Jordan, having already passed over it, as appears from Joshua 4:1; out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm; where being stones, they chose to stand upon them, and which were a firm standing for them; and which secured them from the slime and mud at the bottom of the river the waters left behind; though it is not absolutely necessary to understand it that they were to take, and did take, the stones from under their feet, but those that lay about the place where they stood: twelve stones; each man a stone; and, according to the Samaritan Chronicle {f}, every man inscribed his name on the stone: and ye shall carry them over with you; from the place they took them up, to the place they should next stop at: and leave them in the lodging place where you shall lodge this night: which was in the place afterwards called Gilgal, Joshua 4:19. {f} Apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. p. 500, 503. Joshua 4:4 Ver. 4. Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had prepared of the children of Israel,.... It may be for some other purpose, Joshua 3:12; but this was the destination of them eventually, and as by divine direction: out of every tribe a man: as he had before ordered, and was now directed to. Joshua 4:5 Ver. 5. And Joshua said unto them,....

. Bab. Sotah, fol. 13. 1. Joshua 3:5 Ver. 5. And Joshua said unto the people,.... On the third day; and the thirtieth day of the mourning for Moses, Jarchi says, was the first of the three days, and that being the seventh day of the month, this must be the ninth, as it is most clear the morrow was the tenth: sanctify yourselves; in a ceremonial sense, by washing their bodies and their clothes, and abstaining from their wives; and in a moral sense, by acts of religion and devotion, by prayer and meditation, and the exercise of repentance and, good works: it may denote that sanctification is necessary to our passage over Jordan, or through death to the heavenly Canaan, for without holiness no man shall see the Lord: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you: in their sight and presence, and for them, by dividing the waters of Jordan, that they might pass through it as on dry land; this, as Kimchi says, was the tenth of Nisan, as is plain from Joshua 4:19. Joshua 3:6 Ver. 6. And Joshua spoke unto the priests,....

7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. 8 And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. 9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day. We may well imagine how busy Joshua and all the men of war were while they were passing over Jordan, when besides their own marching into an enemy's country, and in the face of the enemy, which could not but occasion them many thoughts of hear, they had their wives, and children, and families, their cattle, and tents, and all their effects, bag and baggage, to convey by this strange and untrodden path, which we must suppose either very muddy or very stony, troublesome to the weak and frightful to the timorous, the descent to the bottom of the river and the ascent out of it steep, so that every man must needs have his head full of care and his hands full of business, and Joshua more than any of them.

And Joshua said unto them,.... The twelve men: pass ye over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan; that is, they were to go back to Jordan again, which they had passed over, and go into the midst of it, where were the priests bearing the ark; for it is not to be imagined that the ark went along with them, or followed them, they going before it; but they went where that was, just before it, from whence they were to take the stones, as next directed: and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder; by which it appears they were large stones they were to take, not what they could carry in their hands, but what they were obliged to take upon their shoulders: according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; who had that day passed over Jordan, of which these stones were to be a memorial.

4, 5. Joshua called the twelve men—They had probably, from a feeling of reverence, kept back, and were standing on the eastern bank. They were now ordered to advance. Picking up each a stone, probably as large as he could carry, from around the spot "where the priests stood," they pass over before the ark and deposit the stones in the place of next encampment (Jos 4:19, 20), namely, Gilgal.

Take you twelve men - The order is given in the plural, because no doubt the tribes themselves were to choose their own representatives, the choice being approved by Joshua Jos 4:4. These twelve would be left with Joshua on the hither bank of the river, waiting to receive his orders after the rest of the people had made their way across Joshua 3:17 ; Joshua 4:1 .

When all the people had crossed over Jordan, (Note: The piska in the middle of Joshua 4:1 is an old pre-Masoretic mark, which the Masorites have left, indicating a space in the midst of the verse, and showing that it was the commencement of a :parashah.) Joshua issued to the twelve men who had been appointed by the twelve tribes the command given to him by God: "Go before the ark of Jehovah into the midst of Jordan, and take every man a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites," or, as it is expressed in the fuller explanation in the divine command in Joshua 4:3, "from the standing-place of the priests, the setting up of twelve stones (הכין is an infinitive used as a substantive, or else it should be pointed as a substantive), and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place of encampment where ye shall pass the night."

[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.

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. About forty thousand armed for military service passed over before Jehovah to the war, unto the plains of Jericho. On that day Jehovah magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life. And Jehovah spoke to Joshua, saying, Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of the Jordan. And Joshua commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan. And it came to pass when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah had come up out of the midst of the Jordan, [when] the soles of the priests` feet were lifted up on to the dry land, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and they flowed as previously, over all its banks. And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the eastern extremity of Jericho. And those twelve stones which they had taken out of the Jordan did Joshua set up in Gilgal. And he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children hereafter ask their fathers, saying, What [mean] these stones? then ye shall let your children know, saying, On dry land did Israel come over this Jordan;