Josué 4:1-24

BUILDING MONUMENTS. Joshua 4:1-24.

[This chapter, more than many others, affords us a noticeable example of the style of the Hebrew historian. While the central theme of the whole chapter is the building of the stone monument in Gilgal, observe how farther particulars of the passage of the Jordan are recorded, which the writer did not wish to interrupt the order of his narrative, in chapter 3, to tell. Strict chronological order is not sought after by him, but rather a record of the facts, leaving the reader’s common sense to infer the order; or rather, treating the order of events as of little moment. See Introduction.] 1. All the people All the people of the nine and a half tribes which afterwards permanently occupied Western Palestine, and the forty thousand picked soldiers of the Eastern tribes.

[ 2. Take you twelve men These men were surely not elected after the people had crossed the Jordan and while the priests were standing in the river bed, but previously, as Joshua 3:12 clearly implies. See note there. The command there given to Joshua was to elect the twelve men now that is, before crossing and the exact repetition of the command in this place is only in keeping with the simple style of the Hebrew historian. The choosing of the twelve men, which was, perhaps, done by a popular election, took place before they crossed over; the orders to take each man a stone from the midst of the Jordan were given after all the people had crossed.] 3. The place where the priests’ feet stood firm After the waters had rolled away at the touch of the priests’ feet, they bore the ark into the middle and deepest part of the channel. See note on Joshua 3:13. This is also implied in the command, “Come ye up out of Jordan.” Joshua 4:17.

Lodging place Gilgal, six miles west of the Jordan. See Joshua 4:19-20. They lodged at Gilgal not one night only, but many days.