NOTES for Jos 4:1-24

¹And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,

²Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,

³And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.

⁴Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:

⁵And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:

⁶That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

⁷Then 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.

⁸And 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.

⁹And 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.

¹⁰For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until everything was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over.

¹¹And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.

¹²And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them:

¹³About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho.

¹⁴On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.

¹⁵And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,

¹⁶Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan.

¹⁷Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.

¹⁸And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.

¹⁹And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.

²⁰And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.

²¹And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?

²²Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.

²³For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over:

²⁴That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.

The completion of the solemn crossing of the Jordan was marked by the construction of a kind of monument, which was intended by its creators to remind future generations of how the conquest of the land began, and of the place where it happened. The mention of this structure serves as yet another piece of evidence that the entire account of the solemn crossing of the Jordan is a ritual text, as suggested by many biblical scholars who study the Book of Joshua. It is perfectly obvious that the monument was built after the conquest of the land, or at least after part of the territory had been seized and was under the conquerors’ control — the construction of even the simplest monument — a pile of stones similar to the one described in the story — still required time and effort, and in the face of the enemy, the builders undoubtedly had neither. The author allows a peculiar anachronism here — he tells the story of the solemn carrying of the Tabernacle and the Ark across the Jordan as if it all took place at the very beginning of the military campaigns, as though they began with a solemn religious procession.

Historically, everything was different; however, from the point of view of what is called sacred history, the events are described quite adequately. The fact that this is a ritual text only confirms the spiritual adequacy of the description. Indeed: it speaks of a sanctuary and a festival that was meant to remind the participants of the crossing of the Jordan itself, but most importantly — of God, Who then walked ahead of His people. The festival itself was a remembrance, an actualization of what historically remained in the distant past.

Looking at the history of the people, precisely such an actualization was something absolutely necessary for its adequate perception — at any rate, of its spiritual component. That is why the sacred writer places the account of the traditional festival in an era when it historically could not yet have existed: after all, any ritual merely designates in space and time an event that in itself exists outside them — at least in the form in which space and time exist in our familiar world. It is this spiritual event, connected with the presence and action of God, that gives rise to the series of historical events described in the Book of Joshua.

Other notes

For Jos 4:1-24