and command them, saying, ‘Take from out of the middle of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you’ll camp tonight.’ ”
Parallel Translations
-
and command them, saying, ‘Take from out of the middle of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you’ll camp tonight.’ ”
-
And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.
-
and command ye them, saying: Take you hence out of the midst of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood, twelve stones made ready, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging-place, where ye shall lodge this night.'
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Joshua 4:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Joshua 4:19-20 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the east border of Jericho. Joshua set up those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, in Gilgal.
- Joshua 3:13 It shall be that when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan will be cut off. The waters that come down from above shall stand in one heap.”
- Joshua 4:8 The children of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, as Yahweh spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. They carried them over with them to the place where they camped, and laid them down there.
- Genesis 28:22 then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God’s house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give a tenth to you.”
- Deuteronomy 27:1-26 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commandment which I command you today. It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and coat them with plaster. You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have passed over, that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you. It shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall coat them with plaster. There you shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones. You shall not use any iron tool on them. You shall build Yahweh your God’s altar of uncut stones. You shall offer burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your God. You shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.” Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of Yahweh your God. You shall therefore obey Yahweh your God’s voice, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.” Moses commanded the people the same day, saying, “These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. With a loud voice, the Levites shall say to all the men of Israel, ‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who removes his neighbor’s landmark.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he dishonors his father’s bed.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who secretly kills his neighbor.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who doesn’t uphold the words of this law by doing them.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ”
- Joshua 24:27 Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all Yahweh’s words which he spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God.”
- 1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Yahweh helped us until now.”
- Psalms 11:4 Yahweh is in his holy temple. Yahweh is on his throne in heaven. His eyes observe. His eyes examine the children of men.
- Psalms 103:2 Praise Yahweh, my soul, and don’t forget all his benefits,
- Luke 19:40 He answered them, “I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Meaning, the place where they should camp.
Meaning, the place where they should camp.
As Josh. 3:17.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jos 4:3 And command ye them, saying, Take you…
Jos 4:3 And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.
Ver. 3. Twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you.] This is an ancient and commendable practice, by lasting monuments to propagate and perpetuate the memory of special mercies and signal deliverances; to set up some marks and mementoes upon them, that they grow not stale or moth eaten. To this end were those new names of places, Bethel, Penuel, Gilgal, Eben Ezer, Ramath Lehi, Berachah, &c. This is the best art of memory, and a very good means both to prevent Satan - who striveth to obliterate God’s great works, or else to alienate and translate them upon himself, - to excite ourselves to duty - for it fortifieth faith, feedeth hope, nourisheth joy, - and to do good to posterity. {Psa 48:13; Psa 102:18}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Out of the midst of Jordan; See POOLE "Jos…
Out of the midst of Jordan; See POOLE "Jos 3:17". There ye shall lodge this night, i.e. in Gilgal, as is expressed below, Jos 4:19,20.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And command you them, saying,.... As follows:
And command you them, saying,.... As follows:
take you hence out of the midst of Jordan; so that they were obliged to go back into the midst of Jordan, having already passed over it, as appears from Jos 4:1,
Read full note →
out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm; where being stones, they chose to stand upon them, and which were a firm standing for them; and which secured them from the slime and mud at the bottom of the river the waters left behind; though it is not absolutely necessary to understand it that they were to take, and did take, the stones from under their feet, but those that lay about the place where they stood:
twelve stones; each man a stone; and, according to the Samaritan Chronicle (f), every man inscribed his name on the stone:
and ye shall carry them over with you; from the place they took them up, to the place they should next stop at:
and leave them in the lodging place where you shall lodge this night: which was in the place afterwards called Gilgal, Jos 4:19.
(f) Apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. p. 500, 503.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Lodge this night - That is, in Gilgal, as…
Lodge this night - That is, in Gilgal, as is expressed below, ver. 19, 20.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. Where ye shall lodge this night.] This…
Verse 3. Where ye shall lodge this night.] This was in the place that was afterwards called Gilgal. See Jos 4:19.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Hard. The Hebrew term is referred by some to…
Hard. The Hebrew term is referred by some to the priests, "from the station of the priests, prepared, or standing firm," (chap. iii. 17,) by others to the stones, which were to be prepared, hard, or exactly twelve. (Calmet) --- The Septuagint have take it in the latter sense, "twelve stones ready," or such as they might easily find, in the place where the priests had stood. They were of a flinty nature, (Haydock) that they might perpetuate the memory of this event. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. twelve stones] We find on several occasions large…
3. twelve stones] We find on several occasions large stones set up to commemorate remarkable events, as (a) by Jacob in memory of the vision of the Angels at Beth-el (Gen_28:18); (b) by the same patriarch on his return from Padan-aram (Gen_35:14); (c) by the same patriarch again as a “heap of witness” between him and Laban (Gen_31:45-47); (d) by Samuel at “Eben-ezer” to mark the site of the victory over the Philistines (1Sa_7:12). Such stones were sometimes consecrated by anointing with oil (Gen_28:18).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) Out of the midst of Jordan . .…
IV.
(3) Out of the midst of Jordan . . . twelve stones—(9) Twelve stones in the midst of Jordan.—It would seem that we are to understand two cairns to have been set up, one on either side the river, to mark the place where the Israelites crossed. The western cairn was in Gilgal, the other on the opposite side, at the edge of the overflow, where the priests had stopped. The only difficulty lies in the words above cited, in the midst of Jordan. The phrase, like many other Hebrew phrases, is used in a different way from that in which we should use it. The words “in the middle of the Jordan” to an English reader appear to mean half-way between the banks. But if the river were divided, and half of it had recoiled many miles towards the north, and the rest flowed away to the south, any one standing between these two parts of the river might be said to stand in the midst of Jordan, the two parts being on either side; and he would be equally in the midst, as regards them, whether he were at the edge of the stream or not. It is contrary to common-sense, as well as to the words of the text, to suppose that a cairn was set up in the midst of the river’s bed. “They are there unto this day,” the writer adds in Jos_4:9. It is perfectly clear from Jos_3:8 that the priests stood at the brim of the overflow. That spot and no other would be the particular spot which it would be most interesting to mark, the place from which Jordan, in full flood, was driven back.
Read full note →
Further, the words “in the midst” (Hebrew, Vthôlc) do not necessarily mean more than within. In Jos_19:1, it is said the inheritance of Simeon was within (b’thôk) the inheritance of the children of Judah. Yet it was entirely on one edge of it. May not the ark standing in the midst of Jordan represent that suspension of the power of death which is effected by the interposition of our Saviour, and fills the interval between the reign of death “from Adam to Moses,” and the “second death” that is to come?
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Stood firm. Much discussion has taken place about the…
Stood firm. Much discussion has taken place about the proper rendering of the word ykih which the LXX translates etoimouv , and the Vulgate durissimos. It seems best to take it, as our version does, as the infinitive absolute, and to translate as in ch. "Hi. 17. But the punctuation of the Masorites separates it from bXM They would apparently render "to set up."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain The two memorials
The two memorials
The two memorials. The twelve stones taken out of Jordan and erected by Joshua in Gilgal, and the twelve stones left in Jordan to be overwhelmed by its waters, are memorials marking the distinction between Christ’s death under judgment in the believer’s place Psa 42:7; Psa 88:7; Joh 12:31-33 and the believer’s perfect deliverance from judgment. The stones in Jordan stand, typically, for Psa 22:1-8.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.