Joshua 4:1-24

The Double Memorial of the Passage of Jordan

The main subject of the chapter is the memorial cairn set up at Gilgal, which is described in two sections, Joshua 4:1 and Joshua 4:20, separated by the record in a single v. (Joshua 4:9) of another cairn set up in the midst of Jordan, and by a long parenthesis (Joshua 4:10) describing in an expanded form the crossing already narrated in Joshua 3:14. The repetitions are most satisfactorily explained on the hypothesis that the narrator has incorporated extracts from more ancient sources in his narrative.