What must fathers teach when their children ask what the stones at Galgal mean?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

They must teach that Israel crossed the Jordan’s dry channel because the Lord dried its waters in their sight until they passed, as he had done at the Red Sea. The stated purposes are that all earth’s peoples learn the Lord’s mighty hand and Israel fear him forever.

Chapter breakdown

After the people have crossed, the Lord tells Josue to choose twelve men, one from each tribe. They must take twelve very hard stones from the Jordan’s midst, where the priests’ feet stood, and set them at the camp where they will pitch their tents that night. Josue calls the twelve chosen men and tells each to go before the Lord’s ark into the Jordan’s midst and carry a stone on his shoulders, according to the number of Israel’s children. The stones will be a sign. When their children ask tomorrow what they mean, they are to answer that the Jordan’s waters ran off before the Lord’s covenant ark when it crossed. The stones are set as a monument for Israel’s children forever.

Israel’s children do as Josue commands, carrying twelve stones out of the Jordan’s channel to their camp and setting them there as the Lord commanded, according to their number. Josue puts another twelve stones in the channel’s midst where the ark-carrying priests stood; they remain until this present day. The priests stand in the Jordan until everything is accomplished that the Lord commanded Josue to speak to the people and Moses had said to him. The people hasten across. Once all have crossed, the Lord’s ark crosses too, with the priests going before the people.

Ruben’s children, Gad’s children, and half Manasses go armed before Israel’s children as Moses commanded. Forty thousand fighting men, in troops and bands, march through Jericho’s plains and fields. That day the Lord magnifies Josue in all Israel’s sight, so they fear him as they had feared Moses while he lived.

The Lord tells Josue to command the covenant-ark carriers to come out of the Jordan, and Josue gives that command. When the carriers come up and begin treading on dry ground, the waters return to their channel and run as before. The people come out on the tenth day of the first month and camp at Galgal opposite Jericho’s east side. Josue sets up there the twelve stones taken from the Jordan’s channel.

Josue tells Israel’s children that when their children ask their fathers tomorrow about the stones, the fathers must teach that Israel crossed the Jordan through its dry channel. The Lord dried its waters in their sight until they crossed, just as he had dried the Red Sea until they passed through. This is so all the peoples of the earth may learn the Lord’s most mighty hand and Israel may fear its God forever.

The story inside

The Lord’s stone command is followed by the chosen men’s actual carrying and placement. Josue places a separate set of twelve in the river; this is not the set later established at Galgal. The account records the armed eastern groups and forty thousand fighting men, then the Lord’s magnifying Josue before Israel. Josue passes on the command for the priests to leave, and the waters return when the carriers come up onto dry ground. The camp’s date and place are stated. Finally Josue gives the fathers’ prescribed answer about the dry crossing, joining the Jordan with the earlier Red Sea event and naming the purposes of worldwide learning and Israel’s lasting fear of the Lord.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Two sets of stones have distinct placements. The chosen men carry twelve to camp; Josue puts twelve others where the priests stood in the Jordan. The Galgal monument uses the stones taken out of the channel.
2
The return of the water has a stated sequence. The command is given, the carriers come up and begin treading dry ground, and the waters return to their channel and run as before. The source gives no violent surge or explanation of its mechanics.
3
The children’s question receives a specific answer. Fathers are to name the Lord’s drying of the Jordan and compare it with the Red Sea. All earth’s peoples learning his mighty hand and Israel fearing him forever are distinct stated purposes.

Test your recall

Why are fathers told to explain the stones by naming both the Jordan crossing and the Red Sea?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 22658–22683
Josue Chapter 4 Twelve stones are taken out of the river to be set up for a monument of the miracle; and other twelve are placed in the midst of the river. 4:1. And when they were passed over, the Lord said to Josue: 4:2. Choose twelve men, one of every tribe: 4:3. And command them to take out of the midst of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood, twelve very hard stones, which you shall set in the place of the camp, where you shall pitch your tents this night. 4:4. And Josue called twelve men, whom he had chosen out of the children of Israel, one out of every tribe, 4:5. And he said to them: Go before the ark of the Lord your God to the midst of the Jordan, and carry from thence every man a stone on your shoulders, according to the number of the children of Israel, 4:6. That it may be a sign among you: and when your children shall ask you tomorrow, saying: What means these stones? 4:7. You shall answer them: The waters of the Jordan ran off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it passed over the same: therefore were these stones set for a monument of the children of Israel forever.
Lines 22685–22700
4:8. The children of Israel therefore did as Josue commanded them, carrying out of the channel of the Jordan twelve stones, as the Lord had commanded him according to the number of the children of Israel unto the place wherein they camped, and there they set them. 4:9. And Josue put other twelve stones in the midst of the channel of the Jordan, where the priests stood that carried the ark of the covenant: and they are there until this present day. 4:10. Now the priests that carried the ark, stood in the midst of the Jordan, till all things were accomplished, which the Lord had commanded Josue to speak to the people, and Moses had said to him. And the people made haste, and passed over. 4:11. And when they had all passed over, the ark also of the Lord passed over, and the priests went before the people.
Lines 22702–22710
4:12. The children of Ruben also, and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasses, went armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had commanded them. 4:13. And forty thousand fighting men by their troops and bands, marched through the plains and fields of the city of Jericho. 4:14. In that day the Lord magnified Josue in the sight of all Israel, that they should fear him, as they had feared Moses, while he lived.
Lines 22712–22728
4:15. And he said to him: 4:16. Command the priests, that carry the ark of the covenant, to come up out of the Jordan. 4:17. And he commanded them, saying: Come ye up out of the Jordan. 4:18. And when they that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, were come up, and began to tread on the dry ground, the waters returned into their channel, and ran as they were wont before. 4:19. And the people came up out of the Jordan, the tenth day of the first month, and camped in Galgal, over against the east side of the city of Jericho. 4:20. And the twelve stones, which they had taken out of the channel of the Jordan, Josue pitched in Galgal,
Lines 22730–22745
4:21. And said to the children of Israel: When your children shall ask their fathers tomorrow, and shall say to them: What mean these stones? 4:22. You shall teach them, and say: Israel passed over this Jordan through the dry channel, 4:23. The Lord your God drying up the waters thereof in your sight, until you passed over: 4:24. As he had done before in the Red Sea, which he dried up till we passed through: 4:25. That all the people of the earth may learn the most mighty hand of the Lord, that you also may fear the Lord your God for ever.