¹And it came to pass, when all the people had finished crossing the Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua and said, ²“Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, ³and command them, and say, ‘Take for yourselves from here – from the middle of the Jordan, from the standing place of the priests' feet – twelve stones to set up. So take them across with you, and set them down in the lodging place where you lodge tonight.’ ” ⁴Then Joshua called for the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe, ⁵and Joshua said to them, “Cross in the presence of the ark of the Lord your God to the middle of the Jordan, and let each man lift up one stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel, ⁶so that this will be a sign in your community, for your sons will ask about it in the future and say, ‘What is the significance of these stones to you?’ ⁷And you will say to them that the water of the Jordan was cut off ahead of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the water of the Jordan was cut off, and these stones are a memorial to the sons of Israel, age-abidingly.” ⁸And the sons of Israel did so, as Joshua had commanded, and they took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, as the Lord had said to Joshua, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel, and they took them across with them to the lodging place, and they set them down there. ⁹And Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, at the standing place of the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant, and they have been there up to this day. ¹⁰And the priests who bore the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until the whole event was finished which the Lord had commanded Joshua to say to the people, according to everything that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hastened and crossed over. ¹¹And it came to pass, when all the people had finished crossing, that the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people. ¹²And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed in the presence of the sons of Israel, as Moses had said to them. ¹³About forty thousand armed men in the army crossed over before the Lord, to war, to the arid tracts of Jericho. ¹⁴On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the eyes of the whole of Israel, and they feared him as they feared Moses, all the days of his life. ¹⁵And the Lord spoke to Joshua, and he said, ¹⁶“Command the priests, who bear the ark of the testimony, that they are to come up out of the Jordan.” ¹⁷So Joshua commanded the priests, and he said, “Come up out of the Jordan.” ¹⁸And it came to pass, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up out of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet retired onto dry land, that the water of the Jordan returned to its place, and it ran as in times past on all its banks. ¹⁹And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped in Gilgal, at the eastern end of Jericho. ²⁰And Joshua set up in Gilgal those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan. ²¹And he spoke to the sons of Israel, and he said, “When your sons ask their fathers in the future, and they say, ‘What do those stones signify?’ – ²²you will inform your sons and say, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry land, ²³because the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan in front of you until you had crossed, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us until we had crossed, ²⁴so that all the various peoples of the world would know the power of the Lord, that it was strong, so that you might fear the Lord your God always.’ ”