Joshua 4, Twelve Stones

The Israelites have crossed a dry Jordan river.

Joshua 4: 1-3, Instructions on a memorial cairn

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight."

A ceremony is created to help the people remember.  The twelve stones form a very visual image that nails down the memory of this event.

Joshua 4: 4-7, A cairn of twelve stones

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. 

    

In the future, when your children ask you, `What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

There will be twelve large rocks (carried on shoulders) that will create an unusual cairn of stones, a monument. These are memorial stones, intended to stimulate questions from the next generation, as the Israelites review YHWH's promises and decrees.

When the Passover is celebrated, one expects the children to ask "What does this ceremony mean?" (See Exodus 12: 26.) And the parents are to have a response to that question.   Here, too, the children are to ask "What do these stones mean?"  In each case, a vivid symbol is created to stimulate remembrance and commitment.  (In the New Testament this tradition will continue with both baptism and communion.)

Joshua 4: 8-9, Stones set up

So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

Note that the writer, writing long after this event, says the stones are there "to this day", that is, still visible at the time of the author.

The NIV footnotes suggest that one interpretation of verse 9 is that Joshua set up a second set of stones. This is consistent with the fact that one set of twelve stones is moved to the camp at Gilgal at the end of this chapter.

Joshua 4: 10-14, Israel crosses the Jordan

Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the LORD and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them.

    

About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for war.

    

That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses.

The community of Israel now understand that Joshua is their leader.  The writer notes that "transjordan" tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh join their brothers in unity with the plan to conquer the west bank of the Jordan.

The number forty thousand appears in various places in the Old Testament, such as Judges 5:8, II Samuel 10: 18, (I Chronicles 19: 18) and I Kings 4: 26. Given the significance of the number forty in the Old Testament, it is possible that "forty thousand" merely stands for a large round number. (Commentator Hubbard suggests that this is true in this passage.)

Joshua 4: 15-18, River returns

Then the LORD said to Joshua,"Command the priests carrying the ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan."

    

So Joshua commanded the priests, "Come up out of the Jordan." And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.

Just as in crossing the Sea of Reeds in Exodus, the water returns to its path after the Israelites cross.

Joshua 4: 19-24, "What do these stones mean?"

On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan.

He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, `What do these stones mean?' tell them, `Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.'  For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."

Much of the Torah emphasizes certain acts of remembrance.  This time we do not have a festival of remembrance but a monument to recall the memory.  Some have suggested that this memorial describes a good principle: When one sees a miracle or wonderful gift from God, create a physical symbol (a "heap of stones") of His action, a way to say, "I will make sure to remember this."

In case the reader has not seen the parallel between the sea dividing for Moses at the exodus from Egypt and the river dividing for Joshua at the entrance to Canaan, verse 23 makes this clear. The water standing up in the Sea of Reeds was the beginning of the exodus and the water standing up in the Jordan River is the end. (See Psalm 114 for a short praise song that links these two events.)

Gilgal will be the central camp of the Israelites as they conquer Canaan.