⁴ So Joshua called together the twelve men^(A) he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, ⁵ and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan.^(B) Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, ⁶ to serve as a sign^(C) among you. In the future, when your children^(D) ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’^{(E) 7} tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off^(F) before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial^(G) to the people of Israel forever.”