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Joshua 4:9

in Joshua 4

Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood. And the stones are there to this day.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests that bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.

KJV

And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.

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This verse in Joshua 4

Commentary

2 notes on this verse
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. This spot was near, or perhaps on, the eastern brink (compare Jos 3:8).

This site's exposition

children of Israel did so

on Joshua 4:8-9

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.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

Until the the completion of everything. This is as we learn in Masches Sotah, 34a: While they were standing in the Jordan, Yehoshua said to them, “You must know the purpose for which you are crossing the Jordan.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Joshua 4:10:1, via Sefaria, The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

19 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וּשְׁתֵּ֧יםand two [plus]

    usheteimH8147 →768 times

  • עֶשְׂרֵ֣הten

    ʾesrehH6240 →338 times

  • אֲבָנִ֗יםstones

    ʾavanimH68 →273 times

  • הֵקִ֣יםhe set up

    hekimH6965 →628 times

  • יְהוֹשֻׁעַ֮Joshua

    yehoshua'H3091 →218 times

  • בְּת֣וֹךְin [the] middle of

    betokhH8432 →418 times

  • הַיַּרְדֵּן֒the Jordan

    haiyardenH3383 →182 times

  • תַּ֗חַתin

    tachatH8478 →505 times

  • מַצַּב֙[the] standing-place of

    matzavH4673 →

  • רַגְלֵ֣י[the] feet of

    ragleiH7272 →247 times

  • הַכֹּהֲנִ֔יםthe priests

    hakohanimH3548 →750 times

  • נֹשְׂאֵ֖י[the] bearers of

    noseeiH5375 →656 times

  • אֲר֣וֹן[the] ark of

    ʾaronH727 →202 times

  • הַבְּרִ֑יתthe covenant

    haberitH1285 →284 times

  • וַיִּ֣הְיוּand they have been

    vaiyihyuH1961 →3559 times

  • שָׁ֔םthere

    shamH8033 →834 times

  • עַ֖דuntil

    ʾadH5704 →1261 times

  • הַיּ֥וֹםthe day

    haiyomH3117 →2304 times

  • הַזֶּֽה׃<the> this

    hazehH2088 →1180 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

1 Samuel 7:12Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”29 worksJoshua 6:25And Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her father’s household and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho. So she has lived among the Israelites to this day.3 worksDeuteronomy 10:5and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD had commanded me; and there they have remained.3 worksJoshua 3:12Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.3 worksMatthew 27:8That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day.2 works1 Kings 8:3When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark,2 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
1 Kings 8:8The poles extended far enough that their ends were visible from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are there to this day.2 works2 Chronicles 10:19So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.2 worksJoshua 8:28So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day.2 works1 Chronicles 13:11Then David became angry because the LORD had burst forth against Uzzah; so he named that place Perez-uzzah, as it is called to this day.2 worksPsalms 111:2–4Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them.1 worksExodus 28:21The twelve stones are to correspond to the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.1 works2 Chronicles 5:9The poles of the ark extended far enough that their ends were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are there to this day.1 worksJudges 1:26And the man went to the land of the Hittites, built a city, and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.1 worksExodus 24:12Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, so that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”1 worksGenesis 28:18Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it,1 works1 Samuel 30:25And so it has been from that day forward. David established this statute as an ordinance for Israel to this very day.1 worksDeuteronomy 34:6And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab facing Beth-peor, and no one to this day knows the location of his grave.1 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Samuel 7:12

    Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”

    it leads to

    • 2 Corinthians 1:10

      He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. In Him we have placed our hope that He will yet again deliver us,

    • Acts 26:22

      But I have had God’s help to this day, and I stand here to testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen:

    • Genesis 22:14

      And Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. So to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

    • Genesis 35:14

      So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God had spoken with him—a stone marker—and he poured out a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.

    • 1 Samuel 5:1

      After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod,

  • Through

    Exodus 28:21

    The twelve stones are to correspond to the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.

    it leads to

    • Revelation 21:12

      The city had a great and high wall with twelve gates inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve angels at the gates.

    • Revelation 7:4–8

      And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel:

  • Through

    2 Chronicles 5:9

    The poles of the ark extended far enough that their ends were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are there to this day.

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 8:8–9

      The poles extended far enough that their ends were visible from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are there to this day.

About Joshua

The Walls of Jericho Fall Down, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Walls of Jericho Fall Down, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Joshua: the study guide →Read Joshua 4 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible.

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