Joshua 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._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

1-9 The works of the Lord are so worthy of rememberance, and the heart of man is so prone to forget them, that various methods are needful to refresh our memories, for the glory of God, our advantage, and that of our children. God gave orders for preparing this memorial....

Verse Joshua 4:3. _WHERE YE SHALL LODGE THIS NIGHT._] This was in the place that was afterwards called _Gilgal_. See Joshua 4:19....

EXPOSITION THE MEMORIAL.— JOSHUA 4:2 TWELVE STONES. The commemoration of events by the setting up of huge stones was by no means peculiar to the Jews, though it was often used by them, as, for instance, Genesis 28:18; Genesis 35:14, 1 Samuel 7:12. Almost every nation has adopted it. The Egyptian obelisks, the stones at Hamath, supposed to be of Hittite origin, the dolmens and other megalithic monuments of the Celts, the Logan or rocking stones, are cases in point. The Scandinavians filled their country with them. Our own Stonehenge and the Avebury s

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 Joshua 4:1; 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 t

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 (Psalms 42:7); (Psalms 88:7); (John 12:31) and the believer's perfect deliverance from judgment. The stones in Jordan stand, typically, for (Psalms 22:1)....

4. THE MEMORIAL STONES CHAPTER 4 _ 1. The first memorial (Joshua 4:1)_ 2. The second memorial (Joshua 4:9) 3. The return of the priests with the ark (Joshua 4:10) 4. The encampment at Gilgal (Joshua 4:19) Jehovah commanded that the great event should be remembered by a memorial. From the river-bed, where the priest's feet stood firm, twelve men, one from each tribe, were to carry twelve stones and leave them at the first lodging place in the land, that is, at Gilgal. These memorial stones were to tell subsequent generations the story of God's faithfulness and power in bringing His people through Jordan into t

JOSHUA 3:1 TO JOSHUA 5:1. THE CROSSING OF JORDAN. Here we begin to meet with more serious difficulties. The old tradition was that after the Israelites had crossed the Jordan, they commemorated the event by the erection of twelve stones. But this simple narrative existed in two recensions, which differed as to the destination of these memorial stones. According to one account, they were to be placed in the midst of the river; according to the other, they were to be set up on the W. side of the Jordan in the place where the army encamped for the night. Deuteronomic additions have been made to these narratives, _i.e._ additions of a religious colouring as in Joshua 3:7, And Yahweh said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in t

_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 (Genesis 28:18); (_b_) by the same patriarch on his return from Padan-aram (Genesis 35:14); (_c_) by the same patriarch again as a "heap of witness" between him and Laban (Genesis 31:45-47); (_d_) by Samuel at "Eben-ezer" to mark the site of the victory over the Philistines (1 Samuel 7:12). Such stones were sometimes consecrated by anointing with oil (Genesis 28:18

_The Memorials of the Crossing Joshua 4:1-9_ And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, 2 Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, 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. 4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: 5 And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: 6 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their