19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal(A) on the eastern border of Jericho. 20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones(B) they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’(C) 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’(D) 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea[a] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.(E) 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know(F) that the hand of the Lord is powerful(G) and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.(H)

Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast(I) heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they[b] had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear(J) and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

Footnotes

  1. Joshua 4:23 Or the Sea of Reeds
  2. Joshua 5:1 Another textual tradition we

19 And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.

20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.

21 And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?

22 Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.

23 For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over:

24 That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever.

And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.