Where are the 12 stones now that were taken from the Jordan River as a memorial for generations to come?
Are the stones still where they were placed at the time of the crossing of the Jordan?
Joshua 4:7
NKJV - 7 "Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever."
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Asked July 25 2017
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Yolanda Plear
Supporter
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Dennis Shasteen
Supporter
Joshua: chapter 3. Described 12 people from each tribe picked up stones and carried them on their shoulders to be placed as a monument for future generations to see and enquire. The twelve stones in the river, it reads that Joshua placed where the priests with the ark stood during the crossing. I trust they are still there. Maybe covered in Jordan mud, but they are there. Same as where they crossed the Red Sea. There are pictures of the chariots and things still there.
Jordan Richards
Supporter
I'm not sure where the 12 stones are now. In chapter 4 of the book of Joshua, it says that Joshua, Son of Nun, piled them up at Gilgal. This passage also says that "... these stones are to be a reminder to the children of Israel forever," and "They are there to this day". We know that all scripture is God-breathed and God-inspired, and that God is not a man that He should lie. So we know that God's Word is always true, and that God, who knows the future, knew what He was saying when He said that it was forever. He meant forever. So even if we, people who were raised in the West during the 20th and 21st centuries, aren't sure where the stones are, that doesn't mean they aren't there. There are Native Israelis who claim to know where the 12 stones are in Gilgal and you can see videos and pictures on YouTube and Google. (Gilgal is 2-3 miles SE of Maale Efraim in the West Bank).
Tim Maas
Supporter
Amos 4:4, Amos 5:5, and Hosea 4:15 all make negative statements in regard to Gilgal (which means literally "circle of standing stones"), so perhaps even this location, which was originally meant by Joshua to commemorate a miracle brought about by God, became associated in His eyes with the sin and idolatry into which Israel fell following the death of Solomon, and thus was subject to the same destruction that was subsequently brought upon both Israel and Judah as a judgment from God. I would therefore question whether any trace of those stones remains, despite an original intention on the part of Joshua in the verse cited in the question that they should remain in place forever.
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