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…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Joshua 4:6
That this may be a sign among you--The erection of cairns, or huge piles of stones, as monuments of remarkable incidents has been common among all people, especially in the early and rude periods of their history. They are the established means of perpetuating the memory of important transactions, especially among the nomadic people of the East. Although there be no inscription engraved on them, the history and object of such simple monuments are traditionally preserved from age to age. Similar was the purpose contemplated by the conveyance of the twelve stones to Gilgal: it was that they might be a standing record to posterity of the miraculous passage of the Jordan.
Adam Clarke on Joshua 4:6
This may be a sign - Stand as a continual memorial of this miraculous passage, and consequently a proof of their lasting obligation to God.
John Gill on Joshua 4:6
That this may be a sign among you,.... A commemorative one:
that when your children ask their fathers in time to come; or "tomorrow" (g) and so in all time, or any time hereafter:
saying, what mean you by these stones? what is the reason of setting them up, and in this place, and being just of such a number?
(g) Sept. "eras", Pagninus, Montanus.
