Joshua 4:7

_THEN YE SHALL ANSWER THEM, THAT THE WATERS OF JORDAN WERE CUT OFF BEFORE THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD; WHEN IT PASSED OVER JORDAN, THE WATERS OF JORDAN WERE CUT OFF: AND THESE STONES SHALL BE FOR A MEMORIAL UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FOR EVER._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

7._Then you shall answer them, _etc Although the stones themselves cannot speak, yet the monument furnished the parents with materials for speaking, and for making the kindness of God known to their children. And here zealous endeavors to propagate piety are required of the aged, (50) and they are enjoined to exert themselves in instructing their children. For it was the will of God that this doctrine should be handed down through every age; that those who were not then born being afterwards instructed by their parents might become witnesses to it from hearing, though they had not seen it with their eyes. The stones were placed according to the number of the tribes, that each might be incited to gratitude by its own symbol. It is true that two tribes and a half tribe who had obtained their inheritance beyond the Jordan, had not, when considered apart from the others, any occasion for mak...

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....

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

THEN YE SHALL ANSWER THEM,.... By informing them of the design and use of them: THAT THE WATERS OF JORDAN WERE CUT OFF BEFORE THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD WHEN IT PASSED OVER JORDAN; the waters below from those that were, above, which stood up on an heap; so that they were divided and separated from each other, and made dry land for a passage of the children of Israel; and this was done before, and in the presence of the ark of the covenant, to show that is was owing to the power of God, of whose presence the ark was a symbol: THE WATERS OF JORDAN WERE CUT OFF; which is repeated for the confirmation of it, and that it might be taken notice of as a very marvellous event, and to be ascribed to the divine omnipotence and goodness: AND THESE STONES SHALL BE FOR A MEMORIAL UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FOR EVER; which, whenever seen and observed by them, would put them in mind of this...

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

_VER._ 7. _THEN YE SHALL ANSWER THEM, THAT THE WATERS OF JORDAN WERE CUT OFF_— "You shall seize this opportunity to inform them of the wonderful things which God has done for the opening to you an entrance into the land of Canaan; and you shall endeavour to transmit to them, together with the particular facts, those sentiments wherewith I presume you are animated. So long as the nation shall subsist, these stones shall be a perpetual monument to it of your miraculous passage through Jordan, as on this solemn day." We have elsewhere remarked, that it was the custom of all antiquity to erect stones as a monument of covenants, victories, and other important events, whose memory they wished to perpetuate. And though there was no inscription upon these stones, yet the number of them, and their position, was sufficient to denote some memorable thing; for they were evidently placed in a sandy s...

_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

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....