Joshua 4:20-24

20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan.

21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’

22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’

23 For 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^[a] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.

24 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.”

Joshua 4:20-24 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 4

This chapter relates an order, that is men, should take twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, and carry them to the first place they lodged at as a memorial of their passage over it, Jos 4:1-8; and how Joshua set up twelve other stones in the river itself, Jos 4:9; and how many of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, went before the Israelites when they passed over, Jos 4:10-14; which being done, the priests were ordered to come out of Jordan, when the waters returned to their place, Jos 4:15-18; The time when this miracle was wrought is observed, Jos 4:19; and an account is given of Joshua's pitching the twelve stones taken out of Jordan in Gilgal, and the use they were to be of in future time, Jos 4:20-24.

Cross References

• 1. ver 3,8
• 2. S ver 6
• 3. S Exodus 14:22; Joshua 3:17
• 4. Exodus 14:19-22; Exodus 14:21
• 5. 1 Kings 8:60; 1 Kings 8:42-43; 2 Kings 19:19; 2 Kings 18:36; 2 Kings 5:15; Psalms 67:2; Psalms 83:18; Psalms 106:8; Isaiah 37:20; Isaiah 52:10; Jeremiah 10:7
• 6. Exodus 15:16; 1 Chronicles 29:12; Psalms 44:3; Psalms 89:13; Psalms 98:1; Psalms 118:15-16
• 7. S Exodus 14:31

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "the Sea of Reeds"