CHAPTER 4
1 And when the sons of Israel were passed over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua,
2 Choose thou twelve men, by each lineage one man,
3 and command thou to them, that they take from the midst of the trough of Jordan, where the feet of [the] priests stood, twelve hardest stones; the which thou shalt set in [the] place of the tents, where ye shall set tents in this night.
4 And Joshua called twelve men, which he had chosen of the sons of Israel, of each lineage one man;
5 and he said to them, Go ye before the ark of your Lord God to the midst of Jordan, and bear ye from thence in your shoulders each man one stone, by the number of the sons of Israel,
6 that it be a sign betwixt you. And when your sons shall ask you tomorrow, that is, in time to coming, and shall say, What will these stones be meaning?
7 ye shall answer to them, The waters of Jordan failed before the ark of [the] bond of peace of the Lord, when the ark passed over the Jordan; therefore these stones be set into mind of the sons of Israel, till into without end.
8 Therefore the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded to them, and bare from the midst of the trough of Jordan twelve stones, as the Lord commanded to him, by the number of the sons of Israel, unto the place in which they setted tents; and there they putted those stones.
9 Also Joshua putted other twelve stones in the midst of the trough of Jordan, where the priests stood, that bare the ark of [the] bond of peace of the Lord; and those stones be there unto this present day.
10 Forsooth the priests, that bare the ark, stood in the midst of Jordan, till all things were [ful] filled, which the Lord commanded, that Joshua should speak to the people, as Moses had said to him. And the people hasted, and passed over Jordan.
11 And when all men had passed [over], also the ark of the Lord passed [over], and the priests went before the people.
12 Also the sons of Reuben, and of Gad, and half the lineage of Manasseh, went armed before the sons of Israel, as Moses commanded to them.
13 And forty thousand of fighters went by their companies, and by their gatherings, on the plain and field places of the city of Jericho.
14 In that day the Lord magnified Joshua before all Israel, that they should dread him, as they dreaded Moses, while he lived yet.
15 And the Lord said to Joshua,
16 Command thou to the priests that bear the ark of [the] bond of peace, that they go up from the Jordan.
17 And Joshua commanded to them, and said, Go ye up from the Jordan.
18 And when they had gone up, bearing the ark of [the] bond of peace of the Lord, and had begun to tread on the dry earth, the waters turned again into their trough, and flowed again, as they were wont before.
19 And the people went up from the Jordan in the tenth day of the first month, and they setted tents in Gilgal, against the east coast of the city of Jericho.
20 Also Joshua putted in Gilgal the twelve stones, which they had taken from the trough of Jordan.
21 And he said to the sons of Israel, When your sons shall ask tomorrow their fathers, and shall say to them, What will these stones be meaning?
22 ye shall teach them, and say, We passed this Jordan by the dry bottom,
23 for our Lord God dried the waters thereof in our sight, till that we over-passed it, as he did before in the Red Sea, which he dried while we passed [over],
24 that all the peoples of earth learn, or know, the full strong might of the Lord, and that ye dread your Lord God in all time.