When all the people crossed over the Jordan, Yahweh said to Joshua, "Choose twelve men for yourselves from among the people, one man from each tribe." "Give them this command: 'Take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests are standing on the dry ground, and bring them over with you and lay down in the place where you will spend the night tonight.'" Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had chosen from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. Joshua said to them, "Go over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone upon shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel." "This will be a sign in your midst for you when your children ask in days to come, 'What do these stones mean to you?' Then you will say to them, 'The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones will be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.'" The people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded, and they picked up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, as Yahweh said to Joshua. They set the stones up according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel. They carried the stones with them, over to the place where they camped and they set them down there. Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan River, in the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood. The memorial is there to this day. The priests who carried the ark stood in middle of the Jordan until everything that Yahweh commanded Joshua to tell the people was completed, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people hurried and they crossed over. When all the people had finished crossing over, the ark of Yahweh the priests over before the people. The tribe of Reuben, the tribe Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh passed before the people of Israel formed up as an army, just as Moses said to them. About forty thousand men equipped for war passed before Yahweh, for battle on the plains of Jericho. On that day Yahweh made Joshua great in the eyes of all Israel. They honored him—just as they honored Moses—all his days.
