17So Joshua gave the command. 18As soon as the priests carrying the Ark of the L ord’s Covenant came up out of the riverbed and their feet were on high ground, the water of the Jordan returned and overflowed its banks as before. 19The people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. Then they camped at Gilgal, just east of Jericho. 20It was there at Gilgal that Joshua piled up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan River. 21Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over. 24He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.”
| 
