Bible Strands
Joshua 4:9
Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood. And the stones are there to this day.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joshua directs this action immediately after the Israelites cross the Jordan, while the priests carrying the ark remain stationed in the riverbed. The words — The verb הֵקִים (he.Kim) means he set up, and the preposition בְּתוֹךְ (be./Tokh) indicates the precise location in the middle of the Jordan where the memorial was placed. The thread — Comparable memorial stones are recorded in 1 Samuel 7:12 when Samuel erects a stone between Mizpah and Shen, and in Genesis 28:18 when Jacob sets up a stone as a pillar. Why it lands — The text records a physical marker placed at a specific crossing point to preserve the event, leaving the reader to observe how tangible objects function as historical witnesses.
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 Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 7:12 Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
- Genesis 26:33 So he called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the city is Beersheba.
- Genesis 28:18 Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it,
- Exodus 24:12 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, so that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”
- Exodus 28:21 The twelve stones are to correspond to the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.
- Deuteronomy 34:6 And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab facing Beth-peor, and no one to this day knows the location of his grave.
- Joshua 24:26 Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was near the sanctuary of the LORD.
- Judges 1:26 And the man went to the land of the Hittites, built a city, and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.
- 1 Samuel 30:25 And so it has been from that day forward. David established this statute and ordinance for Israel to this very day.
- 2 Samuel 4:3 because the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have lived there as foreigners to this day.