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the whole nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Select for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, 3 and command them, ‘Take up twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood firm. You are to carry them over with you, and set them down in the place where you lodge tonight’.”
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men whom he had appointed from the Israelites, one man from each tribe. 5 Then Joshua said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, so that this may be a sign among you. And when your children ask you in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 then you are to answer them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord’. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off’. So these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.”
8 The Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, just as the Lord had spoken to Joshua. They carried them over with them to the place where they camped, where they put them down. 9 Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant had been standing, and they are still there to this day.
10 The priests who carried the ark remained standing out in the middle of the Jordan until everything had been completed that the Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people, in keeping with to everything that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people hurried across, 11 and as soon as everyone had finished crossing, the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the sight of all the people. 12 The men of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. 13 About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho.
14 On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they revered him, as they had revered Moses, all the days of his life.
15 Then the Lord said to Joshua, 16 “Command the priests who carry the Ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan.”
17 So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”
18 As soon as the priests carrying the ark of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan and the soles of their feet touched dry ground, the water of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as before.
19 The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 20 Those twelve stones that they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal, 21 and he said to the Israelites, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 Then you should tell your children, ‘Israel crossed over the Jordan on dry ground here’. 23 For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before us until we had crossed over, just as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over. 24 This is so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, and so you might always fear the Lord your God.”