SEV Biblia, Chapter 4:20
¶ Y Josué erigió en Gilgal las doce piedras que habían traído del Jordán.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Joshua 4:20
Verse 20. Those twelve stones] It is very likely that a base of mason-work was erected of some considerable height, and then the twelve stones placed on the top of it; and that this was the case both in Jordan and in Gilgal: for twelve such stones as a man could carry a considerable way on his shoulder, see ver. 5, could scarcely have made any observable altar, or pillar of memorial: but erected on a high base of mason-work they would be very conspicuous, and thus properly answer the end for which God ordered them to be set up.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 20. And those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan , etc.] The twelve men who were sent there for that purpose, and took them from thence, and brought them hither, ( Joshua 4:3,5,8); did Joshua pitch in Gilgal ; set them in rows, or one upon another, and made a pillar of them commemorative of their passage over Jordan into the land of Canaan: according to Josephus f59 , he made an altar of these stones; and Ben Gersom is of opinion, that they were placed in the sanctuary by the ark, though not in it; which yet was the sentiment of Tertullian f60 , but very improbable; since that ark was not capable of such a number of large stones; and it must be a very large ark or chest, if one could be supposed to be made on purpose for them; but it is most likely they were erected in form of a pillar or statue, in memory of this wonderful event, the passage of Israel over Jordan, (see Joshua 4:7); they may be considered as emblems of the twelve apostles of Christ, and their ministrations and writings; their number agrees, and so does the time of their appointment to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel, which was after the resurrection of Christ, typified by the passage of Joshua over Jordan, and out of it; the name of one of them, and he a principal one, was Peter or Cephas, which signifies a stone; and all of them in a spiritual sense were lively stones, chosen and selected from others, and called by grace, and were very probably most, if not all of them, baptized in this very place, Bethabara, from whence these stones were taken; and were like them unpolished, as to external qualifications, not having an education, and being illiterate, but wonderfully fitted by Christ for his service; and were not only pillars, as James, Cephas, and John, but in some sense foundation stones; as they were the instruments of laying Christ ministerially, as the foundation of salvation, and of preaching the fundamental truths of the Gospel, in which they were constant and immovable; and their ministry and writings, their Gospels and epistles, are so many memorials of what Christ, our antitypical Joshua, has done for us in passing over Jordan’s river, or through death; finishing thereby transgression and sin, obtaining peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation, opening the way to the heavenly Canaan, abolishing death, and bringing life and immortality to light.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 20-24 - It is the duty of parents to tell their children betimes of the word and works of God, that they may be trained up in the way they shoul go. In all the instruction parents give their children, they shoul teach them to fear God. Serious godliness is the best learning. Are we not called, as much as the Israelites, to praise the loving-kindness of our God? Shall we not raise a pillar to our God, who has brought u through dangers and distresses in so wonderful a way? For hitherto the Lord hath helped us, as much as he did his saints of old. How great the stupidity and ingratitude of men, who perceive not His hand, and wil not acknowledge his goodness, in their frequent deliverances __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
ואת 853 שׁתים 8147 עשׂרה 6240 האבנים 68 האלה 428 אשׁר 834 לקחו 3947 מן 4480 הירדן 3383 הקים 6965 יהושׁע 3091 בגלגל׃ 1537
