Joshua 4 Stones from the Jordan

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Joshua 4:4 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been[a] in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.​

a. Joshua 4:9 Or Joshua also set up twelve stones

The commentaries are not much help. Most just quote the verses as they are. Some explain the placing of rocks as a tradition. Apparently people are still stacking rocks with political signs on them. This is from the blueletterbible.org site.

Each tribe was to send a representative to take a stone - undoubtedly a large one - from the dry river bed where Israel had crossed over, so the stones could be set up as a memorial.​

There was some confusion in the commentaries about how many stacks of rocks there were [are]. This commentary says that Joshua set up a stack in the middle of the river. That would be wonderful..... according to the commentary, when the water was low, the top of the alter would peek out so the people would be reminded of when God let the people across the Jordan as he had let the people across the Nile back in Egypt forty years before. Here's the quote....

Joshua also set up a pile of memorial stones in the very bed of the river Jordan, so that when it was lowered in a season of drought, those stones could be seen and would testify of the time that God had completely dried up the Jordan.

Especially in a time of drought, we need to remember the great things God has done.​

The way I read it though.... The Ark was carried into the riverbed and the men holding the poles of the Ark stood there in the middle of the riverbed while the people passed by. It would make sense that as long as the Ark was in the riverbed, the riverbed would be dry.

The way I read it though.... After all the people had passed through.... Joshua sent twelve men back to gather the heavy stones.... and they carried them to one place.... Apparently hundreds of thousands of Israelites crossing the River Jordan on foot while God held back the current was an all day event. That's possible... on Sunday, thousands of people empty a football stadium in a couple of hours.

The way I read it though.... when everyone was out of the riverbed.... and twelve stones had been taken.... then the men carrying the Ark got to walk out of the riverbed and finally set the Ark down! No doubt they had to hold the poles of the Ark with those heave stone tablets inside all day long. No doubt, God made it possible for them to hold the weight that long. [small miracle here too maybe]

The way I read it though.... Joshua set those stones up at the place where they camped for the night.... He didn't leave the alter in the riverbed... that's not what it says and none of the commentaries that I read offer any evidence of twelve different alters or any alter in the middle of the riverbed.

The way I read Verse 9.... Joshua used the rocks that the men had gathered from the bottom of the riverbed to set up a monument at the camp site.

It's amazing to me that God held the river back for a day. It's amazing to me that those men held that Ark up all day as the hundreds of thousands of Israelites passed over the dry riverbed. It's amazing to me that this is marked by a hand made monument using rocks from the dry river bottom.

This is from Biblehub.com.

The expression “midst of Jordan” does not necessarily imply that the priests stood, and that the stones were built up, in the middle channel; but only that they were in the midst of the water when it flowed as it did before the occurrence of the miracle​

:coffee:
 
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