1And when all the people had completely crossed the Jordan, the LORD told Joshua, 2“Tell the twelve men, one out of every tribe, 3‘Take twelve stones from here, out of the middle of the Jordan - the place where the priests' feet stood firm - and carry them over with you, and set them down in the place where you shall camp tonight.’” 4Then Joshua called the twelve men he had chosen - a man out of each tribe: 5And told them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take a stone upon his shoulder - a stone for each of the tribes of the Israelites - 6To serve as a sign among you, that when your children come and ask their fathers in the future, ‘What do these stones signify?’ 7Then you shall tell them, ‘The flow of the waters of the Jordan was 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’. And these stones shall serve as a memorial to the Israelites forever.”

8And so the Israelites did as Joshua commanded, and took twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, as the LORD said to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, and carried them over with them to the place where they camped, and laid them down there. 9And Joshua set up twelve other stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.

10For the priests who bore the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan, until everything that the LORD commanded Joshua to do was accomplished by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua: the people hurried and crossed over. 11And as soon as all the people had completely crossed over, then the ark of the LORD, carried by the priests, came to the other side as the people watched. 12And the descendants of Reuben, of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, crossed over, armed for war, ahead of the Israelites, as Moses directed them: 13About forty thousand of them, prepared for war, crossed over before the LORD to battle, to the plains of Jericho. 14On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the eyes of all Israel; and the people stood in awe of Joshua, just as they had respected Moses all the days of his life.

15And when the LORD said to Joshua, 16“Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant to come up out of the Jordan,” 17And Joshua ordered the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” 18Then, as soon as the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD had come up out of the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of their feet were out of the riverbed onto the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and ran at flood stage, overflowing its banks, as it did before. 19The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and camped in Gilgal, just east of Jericho.

20And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. 21And he said to the Israelites, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22You shall tell your children, ‘Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. 23For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for them, until they had crossed over, just as the LORD your God did at the Red Sea, which He dried it up for us, until we had crossed over. 24He did this so that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you might always fear the LORD your God.’”