Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(Joshua 4:1) And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying,
In chapter 3 of Joshua, the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so that His people could pass over into their promised land. Now that all the people were completely across the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua.
(2) "Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man."
In Joshua 3:12, Joshua had instructed the people to select one man from each of their tribes, twelve men in all, but it was not told to us why. Now the Lord told Joshua to call those twelve men.
(3) "And command them, saying, 'Take out of the midst of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and you shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you shall lodge tonight.'"
The Lord told Joshua to command the twelve men to go back to the place where the priests' feet had stood and collect twelve stones, each man a stone, and carry them to the place where they would lodge for the night.
(4) Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man.
Joshua called the twelve men whom he had already prepared in Joshua 3:12; there was one man from each of the twelve tribes.
(5) And Joshua said to them, "Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan and take up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel."
Joshua told the men to pass over before the ark in the midst of the Jordan River. Many commentators took this to mean they were to go back to where the priests were still standing in the Jordan; they were to pass over the Jordan to right before the ark. To me it sounds as if the priests had already crossed over with the people, and the twelve men were to pass by the ark and go into the midst of the river where the priests' feet had stood, as God had used that past tense in verse 3, not where they were standing at that present time. Regardless, the twelve men were to take up twelve stones from the place where the priests had stood bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord, each man a stone, bearing it on his shoulder, according to the number of tribes of the Israelites.
(6) "That this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'What do you mean by these stones?'"
The twelve stones were to be placed on this side of the Jordan, the side of their promised land, and they were to be a sign in times to come that would have their children asking what was meant by the stones.
(7) "Then you shall answer them that the waters of the 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 to the children of Israel forever."
When their children asked about the meaning of the stones, they would tell them about how the waters of the Jordan River had been cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Those stones would be an everlasting memorial of how the waters had been cut off from that area where the ark stood where the people crossed over.
(8) And the children of Israel did so and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there.
The people did as Joshua had told them to do, as commanded by God. They had a man from each of their tribes go to the place where the ark had stood while the people crossed over the Jordan River, and each man took up a stone and carried it back over the Jordan to the place where they would lodge that night, and they laid the stones there, one stone representing each tribe of Israel, twelve stones in all.
(9) And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there to this day.
It appears that Joshua took another twelve stones and set them up in the place in the Jordan River where the priests had stood bearing the ark, as a memorial to the exact spot, and they were still there at the time Joshua wrote this account which was evidently some time afterward.
(10) For the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua, and the people hasted and passed over.
This is a rather difficult verse, but I believe it refers only to the priests standing in the midst of the Jordan until all the people passed over the river, as Moses had not commanded Joshua anything about the setting of the stones. I believe it must be the general commandment that Joshua would lead the people over the Jordan into their promised land. While the priests stood in the midst of the Jordan, and the waters were cut off, the people hurried across the river to their promised land.
(11) And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the Lord passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.
Once the people had completely crossed over the Jordan River, then the priests bearing the ark of the covenant crossed over in the presence and sight of all the people.
(12) And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spoke to them.
The men of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh who were settled on the other side of the Jordan, also crossed over the Jordan River, armed and ready for battle, as they had promised Moses they would do (Numbers 32:17).
(13) About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the Lord to battle, to the plains of Jericho.
40,000 men from those two and a half tribes crossed over the Jordan, prepared for battle with their brethren, to the plains of Jericho.
(14) On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life.
On that day the Lord had magnified Joshua, making him great and honorable in the sight of the Israelites, and the people respected and reverenced him all the days of his life as they had done Moses.
(15) And the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, (16) "Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony that they come up out of the Jordan."
Joshua didn't write very smoothly in a clean order, as he already told us in verse 11 that after all the people had crossed over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark crossed over. Here he told us that the Lord Himself had told him to command the priests to come out of the Jordan after the people had passed over.
(17) Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, "Come up out of the Jordan."
Joshua did as the Lord instructed him and told the priests to come up out of the Jordan River.
(18) And it came to pass, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up onto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned to their place and flowed over all its banks as before.
Once the priests carrying the ark stepped onto dry land on the other side of the Jordan River, the waters of the river began flowing downstream again and flowed over its riverbanks as it had before.
(19) And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.
The people had crossed over the Jordan River into their promised land on the tenth day of their first month, Nissan or Abib, as it was called; from the time of the people's exodus from Egypt, it was appointed the first month of the year (Exodus 12:2). Now was their new beginning in their promised land in the first month of the year. They camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.
(20) And those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua pitched in Gilgal.
Joshua set up the twelve stones that the twelve men had taken out of the Jordan River there at their encampment as a memorial of their passage over the Jordan into their promised land.
(21) And he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, "When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, 'What are these stones?' (22) Then you shall let your children know, saying, 'Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.'"
As Joshua had already told the people when he instructed them regarding the twelve stones in verses 6 and 7, the stones were to be commemorative and a visual sign that might prompt their children to ask what they meant, and they could then tell them the story about how the Lord dried up the Jordan River to allow them to cross safely into their promised land.
(23) "For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea which He dried up from before us until we were gone over, (24) That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you might fear the Lord your God forever."
The way this is worded, describing how the Lord dried up the waters from before you, this appears to be directed to the people who had just crossed over the Jordan, and not part of what they would tell their children when they asked about the stones. Joshua reminded the people that the Lord had just done for them what He had done in the days of Moses when He parted the Red Sea to allow their safe escape from Egypt, and that He had done these things that all the people of the earth would know the power of the one true God, and that they themselves would always remember and respect and fear their Lord forever.
The words of Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, really struck me, especially one part. In general, he wrote of how important it was to pass down the things of God to the next generation and that it was God's will that we do that. That has kept the Bible alive in all the earth for thousands of years. It's a vital part of how we raise our children, teaching them knowledge and truth. "A spirit of inquiry is common to every child: the human heart is ever panting after knowledge; and if not rightly directed when young, will, like that of our first mother, go astray after forbidden science." I can't help but think about the forbidden science our world is going after in this day, science that says people can change their genders and artificial intelligence that men seek after to make them immortal and as gods. As a society, we have neglected to teach the truths of God. As a matter of fact, we have forcibly pushed God out of schools and the public square. It's no wonder so many follow after forbidden science, only the things that God Himself has control over. After all, there is no wisdom apart from God (Proverbs 21:30).
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