Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Joshua commands twelve stones to be set up, both within and outside the Jordan, as a perpetual memorial of the Hebrews' crossing.
Vulgate Text: Joshua 4:1-25
1. When they had crossed, the Lord said to Joshua: 2. Choose twelve men, one from each tribe; 3. and command them to take from the middle of the Jordan's channel, where the feet of the priests stood, twelve very hard stones, which you shall place in the site of the camp where you pitch your tents this night. 4. And Joshua called the twelve men whom he had chosen from the children of Israel, one from each tribe, 5. and said to them: Go before the Ark of the Lord your God to the middle of the Jordan, and each of you carry one stone on your shoulders, according to the number of the children of Israel, 6. that it may be a sign among you: and when your children ask you tomorrow, saying: What do these stones mean? 7. you shall answer them: The waters of the Jordan failed before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, when it crossed over; therefore these stones were placed as a memorial for the children of Israel forever. 8. The children of Israel therefore did as Joshua commanded them, carrying twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan's channel, as the Lord had commanded him, according to the number of the children of Israel, to the place where they camped, and there they set them down. 9. Joshua also placed another twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan's channel, where the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant had stood; and they are there to this day. 10. But the priests who carried the Ark stood in the middle of the Jordan, until everything was completed that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, and that Moses had told him. And the people made haste and crossed over. 11. And when all had crossed, the Ark of the Lord also crossed, and the priests went on before the people. 12. The children of Reuben also, and of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, went armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had commanded them: 13. and forty thousand fighting men, in ranks and formations, marched through the plains and fields of the city of Jericho. 14. On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, that they might fear him as they had feared Moses while he lived. 15. And He said to him: 16. Command the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant to come up from the Jordan. 17. And he commanded them, saying: Come up from the Jordan. 18. And when those carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord had come up and begun to tread on dry ground, the waters returned to their channel and flowed as they had before. 19. And the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal, toward the eastern side of the city of Jericho. 20. And the twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan's channel, Joshua set up at Gilgal, 21. and said to the children of Israel: When your children ask their fathers tomorrow and say: What do these stones mean? 22. you shall teach them and say: Israel crossed this Jordan through a dry channel, 23. the Lord your God drying up its waters before you until you crossed; 24. as He had done before at the Red Sea, which He dried up until we crossed: 25. that all the peoples of the earth may learn the most mighty hand of the Lord, and that you also may fear the Lord your God at all times.
Verse 3: Take twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan
3. Command them to take from the middle of the Jordan's channel, where the feet of the priests stood — not precisely from the place of their feet, but from the nearby area. For in verse 4 they say: "Go before the Ark, etc., and each of you carry a stone from there," namely twelve, to signify that twelve tribes of Israel crossed the dry Jordan alongside them. The Hebrew adds hachen, meaning: making firm, or with fixed and steady feet, as I said in chapter 3, last verse. The Septuagint refers hachen to the stones. Hence they translate "walls" [i.e., very hard stones], namely most durable ones, which would last for many ages, as our translator rendered it.
Which you shall place in the site of the camp — at Gilgal, as is clear from verses 19 and 20.
Verse 6: That it may be a sign among you
6. That it may be a sign — and a trophy of the Jordan vanquished and bound, as it were, by you, and hence of all Canaan, namely that twelve tribes, with God as their leader, miraculously conquered this river, and thereby the whole promised land; second, that it may be a sign that these same tribes were enrolled by God as citizens and inhabitants, and therefore heirs of that same land; a third reason is given in verse 25: "That all the peoples of the earth may learn the most mighty hand of God." A fourth in the same verse: "And that you also may fear the Lord your God at all times," and may teach your posterity to fear, love, and worship God, who by so great a miracle brought you into this land, and will preserve those brought in, as long as you persevere in faith in and worship of Him: but when you fall away from Him, He will expel you from it, as He expelled them through the Babylonians, and then through Titus and the Romans. Learn here how strictly God demands the remembrance of His benefits, and how He rewards the grateful with them, and deprives and punishes the ungrateful.
Tomorrow — that is, henceforth, in future ages. For the Hebrews by "tomorrow" signify future time, just as by "yesterday" and "the day before" they signify the past. It is a synecdoche and catachresis.
Verse 9: Twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan
9. Joshua also placed another twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan's channel. — From this it is clear that these stones were not placed on the far bank of the Jordan, as Masius contends, but in the middle of the Jordan. For our translator and the Septuagint consistently translate it so. They were placed for the same reasons as the earlier ones outside the Jordan in Gilgal, namely for the glory of God and so that the truth of the event might be attested to for all ages, and these stones, continually striking the eyes of the Hebrews, would constantly represent to their minds the beneficence, omnipotence, fear, and reverence of God. They seem to have been placed, if not by God's command (as the earlier ones at Gilgal), certainly by His inspiration, even though Scripture does not expressly say so. These stones could serve as a monument and be seen and noted by those standing on the bank, especially when the waters receded, because they were large stones, and the waters of the Jordan are said to be very pure and exceedingly clear, says Abulensis and Arias. Finally, these stones do not seem to have been placed precisely in the middle of the Jordan: for there they could scarcely have been seen; but rather toward the bank, where they could be noticed. For "in the middle" means the same as "toward the middle," near the middle, not far from the middle.
St. John the Baptist seems to have pointed to these stones when he said, Matthew 3:9: "God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham." For John baptized at Bethabara, where the Hebrews had crossed the Jordan. For these stones were a figure of the nations, overwhelmed by the floods of ignorance of God and of errors; but at last to be raised from the deepest channel of vices and darkness to the Church and the glory of God's children, by John and by Christ through baptism. So Rupertus, Abulensis, and Magalianus here, and Remigius, Anselm, and others on Matthew 3, and Pineda on Job 1:1, number 38.
Finally, Cajetan holds that these twelve stones were gathered into one heap. More probably Abulensis, Serarius, and Magalianus think that each one was set up separately, as Scripture here suggests, and this to represent the twelve tribes of Israel, who had crossed through the Jordan's channel on dry foot.
Furthermore, God commanded this monument of the divided Jordan to be set up because it was an admirable and divine work. Historians celebrate the division of the Euphrates, which first Semiramis made; second, Cyrus; third, Alexander the Great. For Cyrus captured Babylon by diverting the Euphrates, which flowed through it, into many channels, and sending soldiers into the city through the dry bed of the Euphrates, as Herodotus, Book 3, and Xenophon, Book 7, attest. But how many months were spent digging these channels? At what cost? By how many thousands of men? But Joshua, merely by bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan, immediately divided and dried it, and through it in a few hours brought across three million people, with so many thousands of flocks of sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, horses, chariots, etc., and on the same day proceeded with all of them to Gilgal, which is fifty stadia from the Jordan, according to Josephus, Book 5 of the Antiquities, 1, that is, six Italian miles, or six thousand paces, plus two hundred and fifty paces.
In a similar manner Elijah, striking the Jordan with his mantle, divided it and crossed through the divided waters on dry foot: Elisha did the same, 4 Kings [2 Kings]. See here how much God values His faithful and saints, He who for their sake cuts rivers and transforms the other elements. In a similar way, at the end of the world an Angel will dry up the Euphrates, so that kings may cross through it, Apocalypse [Revelation] 16:12.
Allegorically, Origen, Rupertus, and Theodoret, and St. Gregory in Homily 26 on the Gospels, aptly apply the crossing of the Jordan to the sacrament of Baptism and Penance, and to the death of every faithful person, about which more at the end of this chapter. Hence also Rupertus asserts that the twelve stones placed in the Jordan represented the twelve Patriarchs, while the others placed at Gilgal bore the figure of the twelve Apostles.
So also St. Augustine in Sermon 106 On Time, who also adds the reason: "For after the death of Moses, when the Patriarchs were buried, the Apostles arose; so also in the Psalm we read: 'Instead of your fathers, sons are born to you; you shall make them princes over all the earth'; so when the Patriarchs were buried, the Apostles are born, just as when the elder people was buried, the younger people under the leadership of Jesus is led into the promised land."
Indeed also Tertullian, in Book 4 Against Marcion, chapter 12, says: "I find that twelve stones were chosen by Jesus from the Jordan and stored in the Ark of the Testament. For the same number of Apostles was thereby portended, who as fountains and rivers would water the world of nations, previously dry and barren of knowledge, as Isaiah also says: 'I will place rivers in a waterless land.' Likewise as gems, to illuminate the sacred garment of the Church, which Christ the High Priest of the Father puts on. Likewise also as stones solid in faith, which the true Jesus chose from the washing of the Jordan and received into the sanctuary of His testament." Note here that Tertullian seems to have had a lapse of memory when he says that these twelve stones were stored in the Ark of the Testament: for Joshua says no such thing, indeed it was impossible; for the small Ark could not hold so many and so great stones. Perhaps Tertullian by "in the Ark" meant "before the Ark" or "in the presence of the Ark," although this does not sufficiently correspond to his antitype about the Apostles, since in explaining the type he adds that by the twelve stones in the Ark was signified that twelve Apostles would be received by Christ into the sanctuary of the Church.
Verse 10: The priests stood in the middle of the Jordan
10. But the priests who carried the Ark stood in the middle of the Jordan, until everything was completed that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, and that Moses had told him. And the people made haste and crossed over. — "That the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people," namely to take twelve stones and carry them to Gilgal as a perpetual monument of the crossing, and to cross safely through the Jordan into the promised land, remembering that they had God present in the Ark as their leader. It seems, therefore, that Joshua, in imitation and at the command of Moses, standing within the Jordan's channel next to the Ark and the priests, impressed upon the people crossing and gathered around him the memory of that benefit, and repeated the sum of the law and the commandments of God, and with earnest exhortation commended their observance. For it is clear from Deuteronomy 3, penultimate verse, where God through Moses commanded this to him, that Joshua as leader preceded the people with the Ark, and immediately in chapter 4, verses 1ff., he impresses his commands upon the people. Therefore Joshua seems to have done the same here. So Arias and others. This verse is an anacephalaeosis, or recapitulation of what has already been said, paving the way for the following narrative.
And the people made haste and crossed over — both because they all had to cross the Jordan on the same day in a few hours, and proceed to Gilgal and into Canaan itself: and the crowd of people was vast and virtually innumerable; and also because their faith was weak, and each one feared that he might not escape quickly enough the terrifying mountain of the Jordan's waters standing on the right and hanging, as it were, in the air. Therefore everyone hurried, and each tried to get ahead of the other.
Verse 11: The Ark crossed and the priests went before
11. And when all had crossed, the Ark of the Lord also crossed, and the priests went on before the people. — This was the series and order of events. The priests with the Ark preceded the people by two thousand cubits, and were the first to enter the Jordan; then they stood still in its midst, and the people crossed alongside the Ark; meanwhile Joshua was exhorting them to the worship of and obedience to God; the Ark stood until the entire people with all their herds and baggage had crossed, to give them confidence for the crossing. And when all the people had crossed, the Ark also crossed the rest of the Jordan, and again preceded all the Hebrew columns by two thousand cubits to Gilgal, where the camp was to be pitched, so that it might be the guide of the march, the people's champion, and the terror of enemies. So Abulensis, Serarius, and Salianus.
The Ark was followed by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh, then the other nine tribes. So the Ark, which had first begun the crossing of the Jordan, and by splitting it had opened a dry path, was the last to complete it, and again going before the people served as their guide, borne before them like the throne of God the King, and carried on the shoulders of priests, whose duty it is to go before others by their example. Hear the Emperor Leo in his Tactics giving instructions to the commander of war on marches, chapter 9, number 12: "But if the places are extremely slippery and difficult, you yourself should first cross there, then stop and remain until all have crossed without trouble." And number 13: "For we know that our father King Basil did this when he led forces against the city of Germanicia in Syria and came first to the river Paradisus, who with torches placed in the middle, by his own presence and help easily and without trouble brought the entire army across, often extending his hand to those in difficulty and rescuing some from dangers."
Verse 13: Forty thousand fighting men
13. And forty thousand fighting men. — The word "and" signifies, that is, meaning: From the Reubenites, Gadites, and Manassites, forty thousand preceded the Hebrew camp into Canaan. Hence the Hebrew and Chaldean lack the word "and"; for they read: About forty thousand crossed before the Lord (that is, before the Ark, or rather in the presence of the Ark standing in the middle of the Jordan; the Chaldean: before the people of the Lord) to war toward the plains of Jericho. I showed in Leviticus 6:1 that the word "and" is taken in this way elsewhere also.
Verse 15: God said to Joshua: command the priests
15. And He said to him — namely, God to Joshua. From the Hebrew you may translate more clearly with Masius: for He had said, or: but He had said to him. For this is a repetition, or clearer narration, of verse 11 which preceded, so as to recount how the Jordan returned to its channel, namely: when the Ark, the last to cross, which had suspended and held back the Jordan until the people crossed, crossed the Jordan, immediately the waters, as if having completed their duty around the venerable Ark, returned to their channel.
Verse 18: The waters returned to their channel
18. And they flowed as they had before. — The Hebrews add: over all their banks, that is, with a full, indeed overflowing channel. See what was said in chapter 3:15. The Jordan flowed as before because God gradually lowered that mass of waters suspended on high, so that it would flow down through its channel on its course into the Dead Sea, or Lake Asphaltitis. For if God had released the entire mass of water at once, it would have overwhelmed everything far and wide, and would even have submerged at least the rear of the Hebrew camp.
Verse 19: The people came up on the tenth day
19. And the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. — From this it is clear that the Hebrews had wandered in the desert for a full forty years, and at the end of the fortieth year crossed the Jordan and entered the promised land, minus five days. For they departed from Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month, when they had celebrated the Passover and sacrificed the Paschal lamb; but they entered the promised land on the tenth day of the same month, because they had to be circumcised there to celebrate the Passover on the fifteenth day. Torniellus errs, however, when in his Annals he writes that the Hebrews crossed the Jordan on the ninth day of the first month and spent the night on the bank of the Jordan, then proceeded to Gilgal the following morning of the tenth day. For "to come up from the Jordan" here means the same as to cross the Jordan and proceed to Gilgal. Both therefore were done on the same tenth day, not the ninth, of the first month. This was the year 2494 from the creation of the world, 837 from the flood, 543 from Abraham, in which the Hebrews, having crossed the Jordan, entered Canaan, as I said at the end of the prooemium, following the chronology I prefixed to Genesis.
They encamped at Gilgal — that is, at the place which was afterward called Gilgal. This is a prolepsis or anticipation; for this place had not yet been given the name Gilgal, but would be shortly after, in chapter 5.
Furthermore, at Gilgal, because of the location's suitability, the Hebrew camp remained for a very long time, and there the twelve stones taken from the Jordan were deposited and fixed. From this it is clear that these stones were not placed in the Ark, as Tertullian says, Book 4 Against Marcion, chapter 12.
Also less correctly, Rabbi Levi holds that they were placed beside the Ark and customarily carried about with it: for they were deposited and fixed at Gilgal, and there they remained permanently, as is clear from this verse and from verse 3; indeed St. Jerome in the Epitaph of Paula asserts that these stones were seen by St. Paula at Gilgal.
Therefore what Josephus says also seems false, that an altar was built from these stones and that Joshua sacrificed on it.
Verse 23: The Lord dried up the waters
23. The Lord your God drying up the waters — namely, by dividing and suspending them, so that the channel would remain dry for you to cross: or He dried up the waters of the Jordan, that is, He dried the Jordan itself and the channel of the Jordan. For the waters were not properly dried up, but part flowed away and the other part was raised on high and suspended.
Verse 25: That you may fear the Lord
25. That you also may fear the Lord — that is, that you acknowledge God as your Lord and the Lord of all things, love Him, venerate Him, and worship Him with all reverence and devotion. For this is the specific meaning, as the Septuagint translates. For Masius rightly observes that in the Old Testament the word "fear" signifies all religion and worship, and pious affection toward God. For that old law was one of fear, just as the new law is one of love, as the saying goes: "Fear first made gods in the world." So Leviticus 18:14 says: "You shall not curse the deaf, but you shall fear the Lord your God," that is, you shall obey God commanding that you not curse the deaf. Deuteronomy 6:13: "You shall fear the Lord your God, and serve Him alone," loving, reverencing, worshipping, praising, and giving thanks to Him, etc. Deuteronomy 10:12: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, except that you fear the Lord your God?" that you fear, that is, that you love and worship Him. 1 Kings [1 Samuel] 12:24: "If you fear the Lord and serve Him." Therefore he fears God who renders Him due service, that is, worship, obedience, and every form of devotion. Tobit 4, last verse: "You shall have many good things, if you fear," that is, worship, "God." Psalm 2:11: "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling." Psalm 33:10: "Fear the Lord, all you His saints," not with servile fear, but with filial fear, as children fear to offend their parents, lest they displease them, namely out of love, not out of fear; "for there is no want to those who fear Him." Psalm 118:38: "Establish Your word to Your servant in Your fear." In the same Psalm, verse 120: "Pierce my flesh with Your fear, for I am afraid of Your judgments."
Allegorical Interpretation: The Jordan and Penance
Allegorically, just as the first crossing of the Hebrews, when under Moses' leadership they crossed the Red Sea, represents baptism, in which we are washed white from previously committed sins by the blood of Christ: so the later crossing of the Hebrews, when under Joshua's leadership they crossed the Jordan, prefigures penance and its Sacrament, by which we wash away sins committed after baptism.
First, the Jordan is the river of the faithful people. It rises at the roots of Lebanon, and grows from the confluence of two rivers, namely the Jor and the Dan (whence it is called Jordan), and from there it flows through most pleasant fields, and finally forms the Lake of Genesareth, or the Sea of Galilee, from which it emerges again and flows into the Dead Sea, where it is absorbed: therefore the Jordan separated Judea and the Jews from the Arabs, Moabites, and other Gentiles. So baptism is received by an infidel and makes him faithful; but penance is received by the faithful and perfects him and makes him holy.
Second, just as the Hebrews, after crossing the Jordan, celebrated the Passover: so after penance the Eucharist is received, in which we eat Christ as the Paschal Lamb.
Third, just as the Hebrews through the Jordan entered the promised land: so through penance we enter the holy life, which leads us to heaven.
Fourth, "Jordan" in Hebrew means the same as "river of judgment": such is penance, in which the penitent is his own accuser and the priest is the judge, according to the saying of Paul: "If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged; but when we are judged, we are corrected by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with this world," 1 Corinthians 11:31.
Fifth, through the Jordan one went into the desert, just as through it John the Baptist, leader and herald of penance, went into the wilderness, and Christ, after being baptized by John, went into the desert and there fasted for forty days, devoting Himself to prayer and contemplation. So St. Mary of Egypt, having crossed the Jordan, went into the wilderness, and there in supreme abstinence, holiness, and prayer lived for forty-seven years. Hence there existed there a great number of monasteries and of holy monks, ascetics, and anchorites, whose leaders and foremost men were Elijah, Elisha, and the sons of the Prophets.
Sixth, just as the Jordan here, driven by God, swelled up and turned backward: so the penitent changes his life, so that he who formerly sought earthly things now seeks heavenly ones (as St. Augustine explains the verse of Psalm 113: "The Jordan turned backward"), which in reality, if he perseveres, he will attain, and then he will say with Jacob: "With my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I return with two companies," Genesis 32:10.
Seventh, Naaman the leper, washing seven times in the Jordan, cleansed his leprosy, 4 Kings [2 Kings] 5: so the sinner through penance cleanses the leprosy of sin. Apply here also the seven marvels of the Jordan, which I recounted in Numbers 34:12.
Finally, the river Jordan silently admonishes us that all things of this life, both prosperous and adverse, flow away and immediately pass by: therefore the former must be overcome with humility, the latter with fortitude, so that generously treading upon both we may strive toward heaven and fix our minds on blessed eternity; for otherwise, if we follow the flow of the Jordan, that is, of this world, it will carry us with it into the Dead Sea, where Sodom was, that is, into the pit of hell. Again, just as the Hebrews, after crossing the Jordan, continually waged wars with the Canaanites until, having expelled them, they possessed the land, so also we, after penance and change of life, must continually fight against the seven capital vices, until we obtain the rest of the land, that is, of our soul, here on earth, and at last in heaven.
Therefore Origen here, in Homily 5, says: To cross the Jordan is to fulfill all that is commanded in the Gospel, so that, stripped of all earthly things, we may press toward the land of the living in heaven, and especially observe those things contained in the eight Beatitudes, namely: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are they who mourn," etc. Hence St. Gregory, Book 33 of the Moralia, chapter 6, explaining that text of Job 41: "And he has confidence that the Jordan will flow into his mouth," attributes it to the saints whom the devil tries to devour: "Jordan," he says, "in the Hebrew word means 'their descent.' And there are some who, desiring the way of truth, cast themselves down, and descend from the loftiness of their former life: and desiring eternal things, they make themselves greatly estranged from this world, since not only do they not desire what belongs to others, but even abandon their own; and not only do they not seek glory in it, but when it presents itself, they even despise it." Let St. Bernard close the column, who in his sermon to the Knights Templar, chapter 9, says: "What is more eminent among rivers than this one (the Jordan), which the Trinity Itself consecrated by a certain manifest presence? The Father was heard, the Holy Spirit was seen, the Son was baptized," Matthew chapter 3.