Joshua 4:8

_AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID SO AS JOSHUA COMMANDED, AND TOOK UP TWELVE STONES OUT OF THE MIDST OF JORDAN, AS THE LORD SPAKE UNTO JOSHUA, ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE TRIBES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, AND CARRIED THEM OVER WITH THEM UNTO THE PLACE WHERE THEY LODGED, AND LAID THEM DOWN THERE._ The children of Israel did so - that is, it was done by their twelve representatives....

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....

LAID THEM DOWN THERE - i. e. in Gilgal Joshua 4:20. Spoken of as the doers of this, because it was done by the twelve who acted for them....

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 THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID SO AS JOSHUA COMMANDED,.... That is, the twelve men taken out of the twelve tribes of Israel, and who were the representatives of them in this action; AND TOOK UP TWELVE STONES OUT OF THE MIDST OF JORDAN, AS THE LORD SPAKE UNTO JOSHUA, ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE TRIBES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; they took the exact number, and out of the very place Joshua was ordered to direct them to do: AND CARRIED THEM OVER WITH THEM UNTO THE PLACE WHERE THEY LODGED: which, as Josephus says i, was fifty furlongs from Jordan, which was above six miles; so far they carried these stones on their shoulders: AND LAID THEM DOWN THERE; which afterwards were put in proper order by Joshua, or at least by his direction. i Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 4....

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

AS. according as. TOOK UP. Four things said of these memorial stones in Joshua 4:8 and Joshua 4:9, (1) taken up; (2) carried over; (3) laid down; (4) set up. THERE. See note on Joshua 8:30....

_unto the place_ "On the upper terrace of the plain of the Jordan, which became the centre of the first sanctuary of the Holy Land the first place pronounced -holy," the sacred place of the Jordan valley (Joshua 5:10-15), where the Tabernacle remained till it was fixed at Shiloh" (Joshua 18:1)....

_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