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Memory is important in the Book of Joshua and in the stories that follow. When the people of Israel remember God’s promises—and His goodness—good things happen. But when they forget, they turn to other things for meaning; they put their trust in other gods—money, power, position, and possessions. It’s been a problem for the people of God up to the present day, so these attempts to remember can remind us about God’s great works. It has always been true that when God’s people take their eyes off Him, they forget the lessons of the past. We honor God through our worship, and we are reminded of significant lessons learned when we praise Him.

The Israelites did as the Eternal commanded through Joshua. They carried twelve stones from the riverbed that day, one for each Israelite tribe, and laid them down that night when they made their camp. Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests who had carried the covenant chest stood, and the stones remain there to this day.

10 The priests who carried the chest stood in the Jordan until all the people had hurried across, until all had been accomplished that the Eternal and Moses had commanded Joshua to tell the people.

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So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones(A) from the middle of the Jordan,(B) according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua;(C) and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones(D) that had been[a] 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.(E)

10 Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over,

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Footnotes

  1. Joshua 4:9 Or Joshua also set up twelve stones