Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:
Joshua summoned the twelve men whom he had prepared and appointed beforehand, calling one notable man out of every tribe of Israel, as God had commanded. These twelve, one from each tribe, were appointed to carry out the work of making the memorial. Each man was to take a stone from the bed of the Jordan, from the place where the priests had stood, where the waters had been cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and carry his stone to dry land. The stones were to be brought to Gilgal and set up there.
At Gilgal the stones were to form a lasting monument commemorating Israel's miraculous passage through the Jordan on dry ground into the promised land. It was a memorial of God's deliverance, providence, and mercy in His past dealings with His people. The visible memorial was designed so that later generations would ask what it meant, and parents would recount the miracle to their children, so that its memory would endure and the story be repeated from generation to generation. Gilgal, where the twelve stones were set up, was Israel's first encampment in the promised land and a place marked by important events in its history.
The appointment of the twelve men from the twelve tribes belonged to the covenant the Lord made with Israel descended from Jacob. That same covenant and the twelve tribes were recalled later when Elijah rebuilt the altar with twelve stones.
Joshua summoned the twelve men whom he had prepared and appointed beforehand, calling one notable man out of every tribe of Israel, as God had commanded. These twelve, one from each tribe, were appointed to carry out the work of making the memorial. Each man was to take a stone from the bed of the Jordan, from the place where the priests had stood, where the waters had been cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and carry his stone to dry land. The stones were to be brought to Gilgal and set up there.
At Gilgal the stones were to form a lasting monument commemorating Israel's miraculous passage through the Jordan on dry ground into the promised land. It was a memorial of God's deliverance, providence, and mercy in His past dealings with His people. The visible memorial was designed so that later generations would ask what it meant, and parents would recount the miracle to their children, so that its memory would endure and the story be repeated from generation to generation. Gilgal, where the twelve stones were set up, was Israel's first encampment in the promised land and a place marked by important events in its history.
The appointment of the twelve men from the twelve tribes belonged to the covenant the Lord made with Israel descended from Jacob. That same covenant and the twelve tribes were recalled later when Elijah rebuilt the altar with twelve stones.