Joshua 3:15-5:1
View Full Chapter15Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
1When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2“Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,
3and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.” 4So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5and 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, 6to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’
7tell 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.” 8So 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.
9Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been
13About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for war.
14That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses. 15Then the LORD said to Joshua,
16“Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant law to come up out of the Jordan.”
17So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”
18And 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.
19On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.
20And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan.
21He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’
22tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’
23For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea
1Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they