1 Once the whole nation had crossed,
2 Yahweh said to Joshua: ¡°Choose twelve men, one from each tribe,
3 and give them the following order: Take twelve stones from the riverbed of
the Jordan, from the very place where the priests stood still. Bring them
with you and put them where you will encamp tonight.¡±
4 Joshua then called the twelve men he had chosen from the twelve tribes of
Israel
5 and ordered them: ¡°Walk to the Ark, up to the middle of the Jordan and
take from there a stone for each tribe and carry it upon your shoulder.
6 They will remain with you as a sign of what happened, so that when your
children ask you in the future: What do these stones mean for you?
7 you may answer: When the Ark of Yahweh crossed the Jordan, the water
parted before it. So these stones shall serve as a memorial to the
Israelites forever.¡±
8 The Israelites carried out Joshua¡¯s order and picked up twelve stones from
the riverbed of the Jordan, one for each tribe, just as Yahweh had ordered
Joshua. They brought these to the place where they encamped and placed them
there.
9 Joshua piled up twelve stones on the riverbed of the Jordan, at the spot
where the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant stood. They are still
there to this day.
10 The priests who carried the Ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until
Joshua finished saying everything that Yahweh had ordered him.
11 Then when all the people had finished crossing the river, the Ark also
crossed, and the priests walked at the head of the people again.
12 The men from the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh
went ahead armed, as Moses had ordered them to do.
13 They were about forty thousand, well-armed, and they marched before
Yahweh, ready for battle, to the plains of Jericho.
14 On that day, Yahweh exalted Joshua before all Israel, and henceforth they
res pected him all the days of his life as they had done with Mo ses.
15 Yahweh said to Joshua:
16 ¡°Com mand the priests who carry the Ark of the Divine Words to come up
from the Jor dan.¡±
17 Joshua, therefore, ordered them to come up from the river.
18 And when these priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh came
up from the middle of the Jordan, when their feet touched the banks, the
waters of the Jordan returned as abundantly as on previous days and
overflowed its banks.
19 It was on the tenth day of the first month when the people came up out of
the Jordan and encamped in Gilgal, on the eastern border of Jericho.
20 There in Gilgal, Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the riverbed
of the Jordan.
21 Then Joshua said to the Israelites: ¡°When your children ask you in the
future what these stones mean,
22 then you shall tell them that the people of Israel crossed the Jordan
without getting their feet wet,
23 for Yahweh, our God, dried up the waters of the Jordan before us just as
he did to the Red Sea which he also dried up before us to let us cross.
24 He did this so that the people of this land may know the power of Yahweh,
our God, and that you yourselves may fear him forever.¡±