Bible Strands
Joshua 4:20
And there at Gilgal Joshua set up the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joshua stands at Gilgal immediately after the Israelites cross the Jordan and make camp on its eastern border. The narrative records his action of erecting the twelve stones as a communal marker for the people.
The words — לָקְח֖וּ (la.ke.Chu) translates literally as "they had taken," specifying the prior retrieval of the stones from the riverbed. הָֽ/אֲבָנִים֙ (ha./'a.va.Nim) means "the stones," identifying the exact objects Joshua sets up at the campsite.
The thread — This action directly fulfills the command to gather twelve stones from the Jordan (Joshua 4:3) and confirms the Israelites' compliance (Joshua 4:8). The erected stones subsequently function as the physical reference point for Joshua's explanation to future generations (Joshua 4:21).
Why it lands — The text requires readers to acknowledge the deliberate placement of a physical object as a recorded witness to a past event. It demands that communities maintain tangible markers to preserve and transmit their foundational history without relying solely on oral tradition.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.
Cross-references
- Joshua 4:3 and command them: ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests were standing, carry them with you, and set them down in the place where you spend the night.’”
- Joshua 4:8 Thus the Israelites did as Joshua had commanded them. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each tribe of Israel, just as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them to the camp, where they set them down.