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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Joshua 4 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/joshua/4.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/joshua/4-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > Joshua 4</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../joshua/3.htm" title="Joshua 3">◄</a> Joshua 4 <a href="../joshua/5.htm" title="Joshua 5">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/joshua/4.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the <span class="name">Lord</span> said to Joshua, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>“Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the <span class="name">Lord</span> your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the <span class="name">Lord</span>. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the <span class="name">Lord</span> had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or Joshua also set up twelve stones">a</a></sup></span> in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the <span class="name">Lord</span> had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the <span class="name">Lord</span> and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, ready for battle, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the <span class="name">Lord</span> to the plains of Jericho for war.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>That day the <span class="name">Lord</span> exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Then the <span class="name">Lord</span> said to Joshua, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>“Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant law to come up out of the Jordan.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the <span class="name">Lord</span>. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>For the <span class="name">Lord</span> your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The <span class="name">Lord</span> your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or the Sea of Reeds">b</a></sup></span> when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/4-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the <span class="name">Lord</span> is powerful and so that you might always fear the <span class="name">Lord</span> your God.”</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">9</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>Joshua also set up twelve stones</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">23</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>the Sea of Reeds</i></span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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