Matthew Henry on Joshua 4:1-9
We may well imagine how busy Joshua and all the men of war were while they were passing over Jordan, when besides their own marching into an enemy's country, and in the face of the enemy, which could not but occasion them many thoughts of hear, they had their wives, and children, and families, their cattle, and tents, and all their effects, bag and baggage, to convey by this strange and untrodden path, which we must suppose either very muddy or very stony, troublesome to the weak and frightful to the timorous, the descent to the bottom of the river and the ascent out of it steep, so that every man must needs have his head full of care and his hands full of business, and Joshua more than any…
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Take you twelve men - From Jos 3:12, it appears that the twelve men had been before appointed, one taken out of each of the twelve tribes; and now they are employed for that purpose for which they had been before selected.
John Gill on Joshua 4:2
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.
John Calvin on Joshua 4:1-9
Joshua 4:1-9
1. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spoke unto Joshua, saying,
1. Et fuit, postquam finem fecit tota gens trajiciendi Jordanis; quia loquutus erat Jehova ad Josuam, dicendo.
2. Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,
2. Tollite vobis e populo duodecim viros virum unum ex quaque tribu.
3. And command you them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and you shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where you shall lodge this night.
3. Et praecipite illis dicendo: Tollite vobis hinc e medio Jo…
