Joshua 4:6

That this may be a sign among you,.... A commemorative one: that when your children ask their fathers in time to come; or "tomorrow" (g) and so in all time, or any time hereafter: saying, what mean you by these stones? what is the reason of setting them up, and in this place, and being just of such a number? (g) Sept. "eras", Pagninus, Montanus.

Joshua 4:6 . That this may be a sign among you — A monument or memorial of this day’s work. Had Joshua given orders to prepare for erecting this memorial of himself, it might have looked like a design to perpetuate his own name and honour; but as it was done by the divine direction, it could be viewed in no other light than as a monument raised to the honour and glory of God, who hath “so done his marvellous works, that they ought to be had in everlasting remembrance,” and means devised to preserve among men the memory of them.

That this may be a sign among you, that when your {c} children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? (c) God commands that not only we ourselves profit by this wonderful work, but that our posterity may know the cause of it, and glorify his Name.

6, 7. That this may be a sign among you—The erection of cairns, or huge piles of stones, as monuments of remarkable incidents has been common among all people, especially in the early and rude periods of their history. They are the established means of perpetuating the memory of important transactions, especially among the nomadic people of the East. Although there be no inscription engraved on them, the history and object of such simple monuments are traditionally preserved from age to age. Similar was the purpose contemplated by the conveyance of the twelve stones to Gilgal: it was that they might be a standing record to posterity of the miraculous passage of the Jordan.

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 .

Verse 6. - That this may be a sign unto you. There was for many years a visible memorial of the miracle. When your children ask their fathers in time to come (cf. Exodus 12:26 ; Exodus 13:14 ; Deuteronomy 6:20 ). The passover, the law itself, as well as certain outward and visible memorials, were to be the guarantees to future ages of the truth of the history related in the Books of Hoses and Joshua. The monument has disappeared, but the observance of the passover and the whole law by the Jews now, more than 3,000 years after the events related in these books, is a perpetual standing witness of the truth of the record. In like manner the Christian passover, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, is appealed to by Christians of every denomination as a proof of the substantial truth of the narrative of the Gospels. Joshua 4:6

This (viz., their taking the twelve stones with them and setting them up) was to be a sign in Israel; the stones were to serve as a memorial of the miraculous crossing of the Jordan to all succeeding generations. For the expression "if your children ask to-morrow (in future)," etc., see Exodus 13:14 ; Exodus 12:26-27 , and Deuteronomy 6:20-21 .

[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.

Compare the entrance of the high priest into the holy of holies on the day of atonement, Leviticus 16:2 , Leviticus 16:13 . For special appearances of this glory in the tabernacle, see Numbers 14:10 ; Numbers 16:19 , Numbers 16:42 . The tabernacle, after it had accompanied the Israelites in their wanderings in the wilderness, was most probably first set up in the holy land at Gilgal Joshua 4:19; Joshua 5:10; Joshua 9:6; Joshua 10:6, Joshua 10:43. But before the death of Joshua, it was erected at Shiloh Joshua 18:1; Joshua 19:51. Here it remained as the national sanctuary throughout the time of the Judges Jos 18:8; Joshua 21:2; Joshua 22:19; Judges 18:31; Judges 21:19; 1 Samuel 1:3; 1 Samuel 4:3. But its external construction was at this time somewhat changed, and doors, strictly so called, had taken the place of the entrance curtain 1 Samuel 3:15 : hence, it seems to have been sometimes called the temple 1 Samuel 1:9; 1 Samuel 3:3, the name by which the structure of Solomon was afterward commonly known. After the time of Eli it was removed to Nob in the canton of Benjamin, not far from Jerusalem 1 Samuel 21:1-9. From thence, in the time of David, it was removed to Gibeon 1 Chronicles 16:39; 1 Chronicles 21:29; 2 Chronicles 1:3; 1 Kings 3:4; 1 Kings 9:2. It was brought from Gibeon to Jerusalem by Solomon 1 Kings 8:4. After this, it disappears from the narrative of Scripture.