5. Joshua said to them: “Go to the Jordan riverbed in front of the ark of the Lord, your God; lift to your shoulders one stone apiece, so that they will equal in number the tribes of the Israelites.
6. In the future, these are to be a sign among you. When your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’
7. you shall answer them, ‘The waters of the Jordan ceased to flow before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it crossed the Jordan.’ Thus these stones are to serve as a perpetual memorial to the Israelites.”
8. The twelve Israelites did as Joshua had commanded: they took up twelve stones from the Jordan riverbed as the Lord had said to Joshua, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites. They carried them along to the camp site, and there they placed them.
9. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the Jordan riverbed on the spot where the priests stood who were carrying the ark of the covenant. They are there to this day.
10. The priests carrying the ark stood in the Jordan riverbed until everything had been done that the Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people, just as Moses had commanded Joshua. The people crossed over quickly,
11. and when all the people had completed the crossing, the ark of the Lord also crossed; and the priests were now in front of them.
12. The Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh, armed, marched in the vanguard of the Israelites, as Moses had ordered.
13. About forty thousand troops, equipped for battle, crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for war.
14. That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and so during his whole life they feared him as they had feared Moses.
15. Then the Lord said to Joshua: