ヨシュア記 4:4-7 JCB

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Joshua 4:1-7

"And it came to pass when all the nation had clean passed over the Jordan, that Jehovah spake unto Joshua saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, and command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Joshua 4:5

Ver. 5. And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark— Or, Pass back again directly unto the ark. These twelve men re-entered the channel of the Jordan, and, being dispensed from the prohibition to approach the ark, came near the place where the priests stood, and each loaded himself with a stone as big as he could carry, and such as might afterwards attest to each several tribe that he had seen the bed of the river dry, and the miracle prolonged till the entire execution of the commands... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Joshua 4:7

Ver. 7. Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off— "You shall seize this opportunity to inform them of the wonderful things which God has done for the opening to you an entrance into the land of Canaan; and you shall endeavour to transmit to them, together with the particular facts, those sentiments wherewith I presume you are animated. So long as the nation shall subsist, these stones shall be a perpetual monument to it of your miraculous passage through Jordan, as on... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Joshua 4:4

4, 5. Joshua called the twelve men—They had probably, from a feeling of reverence, kept back, and were standing on the eastern bank. They were now ordered to advance. Picking up each a stone, probably as large as he could carry, from around the spot "where the priests stood," they pass over before the ark and deposit the stones in the place of next encampment (Joshua 4:19; Joshua 4:20), namely, Gilgal. read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Joshua 4:6

6, 7. That this may be a sign among you—The erection of cairns, or huge piles of stones, as monuments of remarkable incidents has been common among all people, especially in the early and rude periods of their history. They are the established means of perpetuating the memory of important transactions, especially among the nomadic people of the East. Although there be no inscription engraved on them, the history and object of such simple monuments are traditionally preserved from age to age.... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Joshua 4:1-14

Piling up stones was often a covenant ritual in the ancient Near East. [Note: G. Herbert Livingston, The Pentateuch in its Cultural Environment, p. 157.] It was a common method of preserving the memory of important events (cf. Genesis 8:20; Genesis 12:7; Genesis 35:7; et al.).There were apparently two piles of 12 stones each, one at Gilgal (Joshua 4:3-8; Joshua 4:20) and one in the Jordan River bed (Joshua 4:9). Some scholars believe there was only one pile of stones, which the NIV translation... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Joshua 4:1-24

The memorial of the crossing ch. 4The main point in the story of the crossing recorded in this chapter is the removal of the stones from the riverbed. They served as a memorial of this event for generations to come (Joshua 4:6-7). [Note: For a discussion of the supposed contradictions in chapters 3 and 4 and a solution based on literary analysis, see Brian Peckham, "The Composition of Joshua 3-4," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 46:3 (July 1984):413-31.] read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Joshua 4:1-24

The Double Memorial of the Passage of JordanThe main subject of the chapter is the memorial cairn set up at Gilgal, which is described in two sections, Joshua 4:1-8 and Joshua 4:20-24, separated by the record in a single v. (Joshua 4:9) of another cairn set up in the midst of Jordan, and by a long parenthesis (Joshua 4:10-19) describing in an expanded form the crossing already narrated in Joshua 3:14-17. The repetitions are most satisfactorily explained on the hypothesis that the narrator has... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Joshua 4:7

(7) The waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant.—Observe that the act is indirectly ascribed to the ark of the covenant: read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Joshua 4:1-24

CHAPTER IX.JORDAN DIVIDED.Joshua Ch. 3-4.AT Joshua’s command the priests carrying the ark are again in motion. Bearing the sacred vessel on their shoulders, they make straight for the bank of the river. "The exact spot is unknown; it certainly cannot be that which the Greek tradition has fixed, where the eastern banks are sheer precipices of ten or fifteen feet high. Probably it was either immediately above or below, where the cliffs break away; above at the fords, or below where the river... read more