Joshua
Chapter 4
Once the whole nation had crossed,
the Lord said to Joshua: “Choose twelve men, one from each tribe,
and give them the following order: Take twelve stones from the riverbed of the Jordan, where the priests stood still. Bring them with you and put them where you will camp tonight.”
Joshua then called the twelve men he had chosen from the twelve tribes of Israel,
and ordered them: “Walk to the Ark, up to the middle of the Jordan and take from there a stone for each tribe and carry it upon your shoulder.
They will remain with you as a sign of what happened, so that when your children ask you in the future: What do these stones mean for you?
You may answer: When the Ark of the Lord crossed the Jordan, the water parted before it. So these stones will serve as a memorial to the Israelites forever.”
The Israelites followed Joshua’s command and gathered twelve stones from the Jordan River, one for each tribe, just as the Lord had instructed Joshua. They took these stones to their camp and set them down.
Joshua placed twelve stones on the Jordan riverbed where the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant stood. They remain there to this day.
The priests carrying the Ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until Joshua finished saying everything the Lord had commanded him.
Then, when all the people had finished crossing the river, the Ark also crossed. The priests walked at the head of the people again.
The men from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh went ahead armed, as Moses had instructed them.
They numbered about forty thousand, well-armed, and marched before the Lord, prepared for battle, toward the plains of Jericho.
On that day, the Lord exalted Joshua before all Israel, and subsequently, they respected him all the days of his life as they had done with Moses.
The Lord said to Joshua:
“Command the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant to come up from the Jordan.”
Therefore, Joshua ordered them to come up from the river.
When these priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came up from the middle of the Jordan and their feet touched the banks, the waters of the Jordan returned to their previous abundance and overflowed its banks.
On the tenth day of the first month, the people came out of the Jordan and camped at Gilgal, on the eastern border of Jericho.
There, Joshua placed the twelve stones he took from the Jordan Riverbed.
Then Joshua said to the Israelites: “When your children ask you in the future what these stones mean,
then you shall tell them that the people of Israel crossed the Jordan without getting their feet wet,
for the Lord, our God, dried up the waters of the Jordan before us just as he did to the Red Sea which he also dried up so we could cross.
He did this so that the people of this land may know the power of the Lord, our God, and that you may fear him forever.”
Commentaries
Crossing the Jordan.
According to the Deuteronomistic tradition (D), the journey from the desert to the fertile land—especially the land of freedom—centers on this extraordinary event: the waters of the Jordan part to allow passage for a free people who have passed the desert test. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the waters only part for the crowd when the ark of the covenant enters them. If people do not prioritize their commitment to God or follow the plan of life he proposes, they cannot survive, and obstacles will continue to be in their way. The waters of the Jordan will close again once the ark, symbolizing God’s presence, is removed; similarly, Israel’s life will be overwhelmed if they turn away from the living God. But if they remain faithful to him, they will have life, and the entire world will tremble before them. They will have clear signs and arguments to show what it means to have the God of life with them.