Josué 4:7

7. Memorial… for ever The Hebrew word here used is the strongest one in the language to express eternity. But it is often used in a popular way to indicate not absolute eternity, but a period indefinitely long, especially when the “speaker is led by his strong desire to overlook the fact that what he is speaking of must have an end.” Keil. The importance of this memorial as a proof of the miraculous passage of the Jordan is thus set forth by Mr. Leslie: “Let us suppose that there never was any such thing as that passage over Jordan; that these stones at Gilgal were set up on some other occasion; and that some designing man in an after age invented this book of Joshua, affirmed that it was written at the time of that imaginary event by Joshua himself, and adduced this pile of stones as a testimony of the truth of it; would not every body say to him, ‘We know this pile very well; but we never before heard of this reason for it, nor of this book of Joshua? where has it lain concealed all this while, and where and how came you, after so many ages, to find it? Besides, this book tells us that this passage over Jordan was ordained to be taught our children from age to age, and therefore that they were always to be instructed in the meaning of this particular monument as a memorial of it; but we were never so taught when we were children, nor did we ever teach our children any such thing; and it is in the highest degree improbable that such an emphatic ordinance should have been forgotten, during the continuance of so remarkable a pile, set up for the express purpose of perpetuating its remembrance.”