Open English Translation JOS Chapter 4

4 Once all the people had crossed over the Yordan River, Yahweh told Yehoshua, 2 “Take those twelve men that the people selected from each tribe, 3 and give them these instructions: Pick up twelve boulders from here in the middle of the Yordan from near where the priests are standing, and bring them over with you, and put them in the place where you all camp tonight.”

4 So Yehoshua called over the twelve men, one from each tribe, 5 and told them, “Cross back to where your God Yahweh’s box is in the middle of the Yordan and each of you should pick up a rock and carry it back on your shoulder—one stone each on your shoulder to match the number of tribes of Yisra’el’s sons. 6 Those boulders will be a monument for all the people. In the future when your children ask what those boulders mean, 7 then you’ll all be able to tell them that the water in the Yordan River was cut off ahead of the box with Yahweh’s agreement. When it crossed over into the river, the water in the river stopped flowing, and those boulders are a memorial for the Israelis forever.

8 So the Israelis did just what Yehoshua had told them to do, and they picked up twelve boulders from the Yordan, just as Yahweh had instructed Yehoshua, and brought them over to where the people were camping and placed them down there. 9 Then Yehoshua stacked up twelve other boulders in the middle of the Yordan where the feet of the priests carrying the box with the agreement had been, and they remain there until today. 10 The priests carrying the box had stood in the middle of the Yordan until everything that Yahweh had instructed Yehoshua to pass on to the people was done, just as Mosheh had also instructed Yehoshua, and the people had rapidly crossed over.

11 As soon as all the people had crossed over, the priests carrying Yahweh’s box also crossed over in front of the people. 12 The soldiers from the tribes of Reuben, and Gad and the half-tribe of Menashsheh had marched over ahead of the rest of the Israeli, as Mosheh had agreed with them. 13 (There were around forty thousand of them, armed and ready for battle, and they were heading to the plains of Yericho for the battle there.) 14 On that day, Yahweh helped Yehoshua to look powerful in the eyes of the people, and they respected him just as they had respected Mosheh all the days of his[fn] life.

15 Then Yahweh told Yehoshua, 16 “Now order the priests carrying the box with the agreement to come up out of what was the Yordan River,” 17 so Yehoshua instructed the priests to come on up from the Yordan. 18 As soon as the priests carrying the box with Yahweh’s agreement came up out of what had been the Yordan River and their feet stepped onto what had been dry land, the river water returned to its place and overflowed it banks as it had been doing for the previous few days.

19 The people had come up from the river valley around the end of March and they camped east of Yericho at Gilgal, 20 which was where they had set up the monument of twelve boulders. 21 Then Yehoshua told the Israelis, “In the future when your descendants ask why these boulders are here, 22 tell them that this is where Israel crossed the Yordan River on dry land. 23 Your God Yahweh dried up the river water ahead of you until you’d all crossed over, just as he had done when he dried up the Red Sea before we crossed over. 24 Yahweh did that so that all the peoples in the world would know that he is powerful, and so that you’ll always all respect him.