Joshuachapter 4
24 verses · BSBJoshua book hub →
Key verse
and command them: ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests were standing, carry them with you, and set them down in the place where you spend the night.’”
It stands in Twelve stones lifted out of the riverbed, verses 1 to 9.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Two heaps of stones fix the miracle in memory. Twelve men, one from each tribe, carry twelve stones from where the priests' feet stood and set them up in the lodging place at Gilgal; twelve more are set in the midst of Jordan itself. The reason is catechetical: when your children ask in time to come, What mean ye by these stones?, you tell them the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant. Israel comes up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, the day the Passover lamb was taken, and camps in the east border of Jericho.
Context
History · Joshua · Joshua overview
Where the chapter sits
Joshua 4 falls in Entry into the Land (chapters 1–5). Commissioning of Joshua; Rahab and the spies; Jordan crossing; memorial stones at Gilgal; circumcision and Passover; the Captain of the LORD's host.
After it: Conquest campaigns, chapters 6–12.
The whole shape of Joshua→The world behind this chapter
Joshua 4The history
Twelve men, one from each tribe, carried twelve stones out of the middle of the riverbed on their shoulders. Standing stones were the ordinary way to mark an event or a treaty across the region, and a circle of them at Gilgal, the name itself suggests a circle, would have been the first Israelite monument in the land.
The stones were set up at the first camp west of the river. Gilgal became the base of operations for the whole campaign; the army marched out from there and returned to it, and it stayed a significant place in Israel's memory for centuries.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The date given is the tenth day of the first month, which is the day the Passover lamb was to be selected. Israel enters the land on the anniversary week of the Exodus, forty years on to the season.
The purpose stated for the monument is a question. When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean, you tell them the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark. That is a memory system: put an odd object in the landscape, and let a child's curiosity carry the story to the next generation.
What it meant to them
The chapter is honest about who the miracle was for. The purpose given is that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the LORD is mighty, and that Israel may fear him always.
About forty thousand armed men crossed over ready for war in the sight of the people. The first hearers were being told the nation entered its inheritance in formation, not as refugees stumbling in.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Twelve stones lifted out of the riverbed
1. (vv. 1-3)
Joshua 4:1
“And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan,.... As related, Jos 3:17, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying: as follows.”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 4:1reformed
Joshua 4:1, 1 more voiceWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Joshua 4:1
“It is the pious conjecture of the learned bishop Patrick that Joshua had gone into some place of retirement to return thanks immediately for this wonderful mercy, and then god met him, and spoke thus to him.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Joshua 4:1puritan
Joshua 4:2
“Take you twelve men - From Jos 3:12, it appears that the twelve men had been before appointed, one taken out of each of the twelve tribes; and now they are employed for that purpose for which they had been before selected.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 4:2evangelical
Joshua 4:3
“The people of the Hebrews, as we learn, after many sufferings, and after accomplishing their weary course in the desert, did not enter the land of promise until it had first been brought, with Joshua for its guide and the pilot of its life, to the passage of the Jordan.”
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But it is clear that Joshua also, who set up the twelve stones in the stream, was anticipating the coming of the twelve disciples, the ministers of Baptism.
Gregory of Nyssa· written before 395· ON THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST· Joshua 4:3patristic
a.The order comes while the priests are still standing in the riverbed and the water is still held back, so the memorial is arranged before the miracle closes. The twelve men were picked a chapter earlier at 3:12 and the text gives their errand only now. The stones are taken from the one patch of ground a man could not otherwise reach, the place under the priests' feet in the channel, so the monument is built out of the riverbed itself.
2. (vv. 4-7)
Joshua 4:4
“Twelve men, whom he had prepared - This must refer to their appointment, Jos 3:12.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 4:4evangelical
Joshua 4:4, 1 more voice
Joshua 4:4
“Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had prepared of the children of Israel,.... It may be for some other purpose, Jos 3:12; but this was the destination of them eventually, and as by divine direction: out of every tribe a man: as he had before ordered, and was now directed to.”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 4:4reformed
Joshua 4:5
“Images are of two kinds: either they are words written in a book … or else they are material images such as the twelve stones which he commanded to be taken from the Jordan for a second memorial (such a mystery, truly the greatest ever to befall the faithful people!)”
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of the carrying of the ark and the parting of the waters. Therefore we now set up images in remembrance of valiant men, that we may zealously desire to follow their example.
John Damascene· written before 749· ON DIVINE IMAGES 3.23· Joshua 4:5patristic
Joshua 4:6
“That this may be a sign among you,.... A commemorative one: that when your children ask their fathers in time to come; or "tomorrow" (g) and so in all time, or any time hereafter: saying, what mean you by these stones? what is the reason of setting them up, and in this place, and being just of such a number?”
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(g) מחר αυριον, Sept. "eras", Pagninus, Montanus.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 4:6reformed
Joshua 4:7
“They are the established means of perpetuating the memory of important transactions, especially among the nomadic people of the East. Although there be no inscription engraved on them, the history and object of such simple monuments are traditionally preserved from age to age.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)· Joshua 4:7reformed
a.Verse 6 gives the reason for the pile before the pile exists, that a child will ask what the stones mean and get told. The same shape is set down twice in the Torah, at Exodus 12:26 for the passover and Deuteronomy 6:20 for the statutes, and each time the question comes from the child and the answer is a piece of history rather than a rule. Israel is told to leave an object strange enough on that flat ground to make somebody ask.
3. (vv. 8-9)
Joshua 4:8
“Laid them down there - i. e. in Gilgal Jos 4:20. Spoken of as the doers of this, because it was done by the twelve who acted for them.”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 4:8evangelical
Joshua 4:9
“Another set of stones is intended than that before mentioned. The one set was erected by the command of God at the spot where they passed the night Jos 4:3; the other by Joshua on the spot where the priests’ feet rested while they bore up the ark during the passage of the people.”
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This spot was near, or perhaps on, the eastern brink (compare Jos 3:8).
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 4:9evangelical
a.Two piles are named, one carried out to the lodging place and one set up by Joshua in the middle of the river where the priests had stood. Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read them as two separate monuments, and other writers take verse 9 as a fuller account of the same twelve stones, since the Hebrew carries either. The clause and they are there unto this day puts the writer at a time when the second pile could still be pointed at, which is one of the marks readers use in dating the book.
B. All Israel passes over on dry ground
1. (vv. 10-11)
Joshua 4:10
“And the people hasted and passed over - How very natural is this circumstance! The people seeing the waters divided, and Jordan running back, might be apprehensive that it would soon resume its wonted course; and this would naturally lead them to hasten to get over, with as much speed as possible.”
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The circumstance itself thus marked is a proof that the relater was an eyewitness of this miraculous passage.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 4:10evangelical
Joshua 4:10, 1 more voice
Joshua 4:10
“The unfaltering confidence of the priests contrasts strikingly with the conduct of the people, who "hasted and passed over." Their faith, like that of many of God's people, was, through the weakness of nature, blended with fears.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)· Joshua 4:10reformed
Joshua 4:11
“And it came to pass, when the people were clean passed over,....”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 4:11reformed
a.The priests hold the middle of the channel until every word is finished, and the people cross at speed. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the haste as weakness set beside the priests' steadiness, while Clarke reads it as what any man would do walking a riverbed with the water piled upstream, and takes the detail as the mark of an eyewitness. Verse 10 says the orders came according to all that Moses commanded Joshua, and the charge Moses gave him at Deuteronomy 3:28 and 31:7 carries none of these details, so the writer knows of instruction Scripture does not preserve in full.
2. (vv. 12-13)
Joshua 4:12
“The children of Reuben, and - Gad - Concerning the numbers of these tribes that stayed behind to take care of the women, children, and cattle, and which amounted to 70,580 men, see the note on Num 32:17. Passed over armed - See the note on Jos 1:14.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 4:12evangelical
Joshua 4:13
“About forty thousand prepared for war,.... Accoutred with proper armour to defend themselves, and their brethren, and annoy their enemies: this is to be understood of such a number of the above mentioned tribes; otherwise the number of all Israel that went over Jordan, even armed or fighting men, besides women and children, were five hundred thousand or more.”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 4:13reformed
Joshua 4:13, 1 more voice
Joshua 4:13
“The plains of Jericho, consisting of the higher terrace of the Jordan valley, are almost seven miles broad. The mountains of Judaea here recede somewhat from the river, and leave a level and fertile space, which, at the time of Joshua’s invasion, was principally occupied by a forest of palms. Hence, the name “city of palms,” Deu 34:3.”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 4:13evangelical
a.These are the tribes that already hold their land east of the river, and they cross first and armed because of the bargain struck at Numbers 32:16-32 and put to them again by Joshua at 1:12-15. The forty thousand is a portion of them rather than the whole, since the muster of Numbers 26 puts Reuben, Gad and half Manasseh near a hundred and ten thousand fighting men, and Clarke reckons the seventy thousand five hundred and eighty left behind to guard the women, children and cattle. The men with nothing further to gain go over the water in front of everybody else.
3. (vv. 14-15)
Joshua 4:14
Everyone who is under the law reveres Moses. But when one crosses over to the gospel from the law, by the changed observance the reverence is also changed.
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It is just as the apostle says, "For I through the law have died to the law so that I may live for God; I was crucified with Christ, but now I live; not I, but Christ lives in me."
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 5.4· Joshua 4:14patristic
Joshua 4:14, 1 more voice
Joshua 4:14
“On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel--It appeared clear from the chief part he acted, that he was the divinely appointed leader; for even the priests did not enter the river or quit their position, except at his command; and thenceforward his authority was as firmly established as that of his predecessor.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)· Joshua 4:14reformed
Joshua 4:15
“The passage of the priests to the further bank had been already referred to, Jos 4:11; but the writer, in observance of his general plan (compare introductory remarks to Josh. 3), re-introduces it here as the leading feature in the concluding section of his account, and (as before) with mention of God’s special direction about it.”
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The statement that on the removal of the ark the waters of Jordan at once returned to their former level Jos 4:18, heightens the impression which is especially inculcated throughout - that the whole transaction was extraordinary and miraculous.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 4:15evangelical
a.Joshua 3:7 promised this before the crossing, that the Lord would begin to magnify him in the sight of all Israel, and verse 14 reports it done on the day named. The comparison is exact. Exodus 14:31 says that after the sea the people believed the Lord and his servant Moses, and the same sentence is now written about Joshua after a river, so the successor is confirmed by the same kind of act that confirmed the man he follows.
4. (vv. 16-18)
Joshua 4:16
“Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony,....”
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In all places before, in this history, the ark is called the ark of the covenant, here the ark of the testimony, which signifies the same thing, the law; which was both the covenant between God and the people, and a testimony of his will unto them; the Septuagint version has both words: that they come up out of Jordan; where they stayed until all the people passed over, for the encouragement of them, and until they received this order.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 4:16reformed
Joshua 4:17
“Joshua therefore commanded the priests,.... In obedience to the Lord, and sent them an order: saying; as follows: come ye up out of Jordan; from the midst of the river to the bank of it, which was properly an ascent.”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 4:17reformed
Joshua 4:18
“The waters of Jordan returned unto their place - It is particularly remarked by the sacred historian, that as soon as the soles of the priests’ feet touched the water, the stream of the Jordan was cut off, Jos 3:15, and the course of the river continued to be inverted all the time they continued in its channel…”
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and that as soon as the soles of their feet had touched the dry land, on their return from the bed of the river, the waters immediately resumed their natural course.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 4:18evangelical
a.The chest is called the ark of the testimony here and the ark of the covenant everywhere else in the book, the two names Exodus 25:16 and 25:22 give the same object and the law kept inside it. The water answers to the soles of the priests' feet in both directions, cut off when they touched it at 3:15 and returned when they lifted at verse 18. It comes back in flood and over all his banks, so Israel is left standing on the far side of a river no man among them could now recross.
C. Gilgal: a memorial built for the children's question
1. (vv. 19-20)
Joshua 4:19
“And when do they come to the crossing of the Jordan? For I have noted that this also has been indicated, so that even the time might be distinguished, and with good reason. "On the tenth," it says, "of the first month." That is also the day on which the mystery of the lamb was prefigured in Egypt.”
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On the tenth of the first month, these things were celebrated in Egypt; on the tenth of the first month, they go into the land of promise.
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 4.4· Joshua 4:19patristic
Joshua 4:19, 2 more voices
Joshua 4:19
“And the people came up out of Jordan,....”
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The channel of it, to the shore: on the tenth day of the first month; the month Nisan or Abib, which from the time of Israel's coming out of Egypt was appointed the first month of the year, Exo 12:2; on the fifteenth of which month they came out of Egypt, having kept the passover on the fourteenth at even; so that their coming out of Egypt, to their entrance into Canaan, was just forty years, wanting five days.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 4:19reformed
Joshua 4:19
“Gilgal, mentioned here by anticipation (compare Jos 5:9), the modern Jiljulieh (Conder), was on rising ground (compare Jos 5:3), and, according to Josephus, nearly five miles from the river, and consequently about two from the city itself.”
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The site of the camp was no doubt fortified by Joshua, as it constituted for some time the abiding foothold in Canaan, from where he sallied forth to subdue the country. It was also the place of safety where the ark, and no doubt also the women, children, cattle, and other property of the people were left.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 4:19evangelical
Joshua 4:20
“Those twelve stones - It is very likely that a base of mason-work was erected of some considerable height, and then the twelve stones placed on the top of it; and that this was the case both in Jordan and in Gilgal: for twelve such stones as a man could carry a considerable way on his shoulder, see Jos 4:5…”
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could scarcely have made any observable altar, or pillar of memorial: but erected on a high base of mason-work they would be very conspicuous, and thus properly answer the end for which God ordered them to be set up.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 4:20evangelical
a.the tenth day of the first: The date is given and it carries weight. The tenth day of the first month is the day Exodus 12:3 set for taking up the passover lamb, and four days later at 5:10 Israel keeps the passover in the land; they left Egypt on the fifteenth of that month, so the entry falls forty years less five days after the exit. Gilgal is named here before 5:9 explains where the name came from, and the pile of river stones is the first thing Israel builds in Canaan.
2. (vv. 21-24)
Joshua 4:21
“And he spoke unto the children of Israel, saying,.... At the same time he set up the stones: when you children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? See Gill on Jos 4:6.”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 4:21reformed
Joshua 4:22
“Then ye shall let your children know - The necessity of an early religious education is inculcated through the whole oracles of God. The parents who neglect it have an awful account to give to the Judge of quick and dead.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 4:22evangelical
Joshua 4:22, 3 more voices
Joshua 4:22
“Then ye shall let your children know,....”
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The meaning of the erection of these stones, acquaint them with the whole history, the meaning of which they are designed to perpetuate: saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land; and if they should ask how that could possibly be done, or if they did not, they were to inform them by what means it was brought about, as follows.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 4:22reformed
Joshua 4:22
“According to these orders the thing was done. Twelve stones were taken up out of the midst of Jordan, and carried in the sight of the people to the place where they had their head-quarters that night,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Joshua 4:22puritan
Joshua 4:22
“They must let their children know that Jordan was driven back before Israel, who went through it upon dry land, and that this was the very place where they passed over.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Joshua 4:22puritan
Joshua 4:23
“Before us - That is, myself and Caleb, and all of us here present; for this benefit, though done to their fathers, is justly said to be done to themselves, because they were then in their parent's loins.”
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It greatly magnifies later mercies, to compare them with former mercies; for hereby it appears, that God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 4:23evangelical
Joshua 4:24
“That all the people of the earth might know - It is very likely that כל עמי הארץ col ammey haarets means simply, all the people of this land - all the Canaanitish nations, to whom, by the miracles wrought in behalf of his people, he intended to show his eternal power and Godhead, the excellence of his protection…”
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and the unavailableness of human might against his omnipotence; and the miracles he wrought for this people, in the sight of the heathen, were well calculated to make these things known.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 4:24evangelical
a.The answer the fathers owe their children is written out in full, and it ends at the Red Sea, so the stones teach a crossing the children never saw by way of an older one their parents never saw either. Verse 23 slips into the first person, which he dried up from before us, though the men who walked through the sea were dead by Numbers 26:64; the speaker counts the nation as one body across its generations. Verse 24 states two aims, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord and that Israel might fear him for ever, and Clarke reads the first phrase narrowly of the peoples of that land while other writers take it as wide as it sounds.
This page carries no textual note on Joshua 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Gregory of Nyssa, ON THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown; John Damascene, ON DIVINE IMAGES 3.23; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Matthew Henry and Origen of Alexandria.