“Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man,
Joshua had his hands full moving wives, children, cattle, tents, and all their effects across a treacherous ford while an enemy watched; yet even in that press of business, he would not delay the memorial God required. Mark this: however urgent our own affairs, we dare not neglect what belongs to God's glory and His honour, for that is our truest business.
AI summary
Commenting on Joshua 4:1-9
Take you twelve men out of the people,.... Joshua had before this ordered twelve men to be taken from among them, which seems to have been done of himself; and now he has a direction from God for it, and what to employ them in: out of every tribe a man; so that what they did was in the name of the several tribes, and as representing them.
And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. (g) Either tarrying till the people were past, or as some read, sure, as though they had been on dry land.
Commenting on Joshua 4:1-2