Josue 4:20
And the twelve stones which they had taken out of the channel of the Jordan, Josue pitched in Galgal,
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Duodecim quoque lapides, quos de Jordanis alveo sumpserant, posuit Josue in Galgalis,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ τούς δώδεκα λίθους τούτους οὓς ἔλαβεν ἐκ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου ἔστησεν Ἰησοῦς ἐν Γαλγάλοις
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְאֵת֩ שְׁתֵּ֨ים עֶשְׂרֵ֤ה הָֽאֲבָנִים֙ הָאֵ֔לֶּה אֲשֶׁ֥ר לָקְח֖וּ מִן הַיַּרְדֵּ֑ן הֵקִ֥ים יְהוֹשֻׁ֖עַ בַּגִּלְגָּֽל
Haydock's commentary
Galgal. It received its name afterwards, chap. v. 9. It lay in a direct line from Jericho to the Jordan eastwards, being ten stadia from the former, and fifty from the latter place. Josue had his camp here while he subdued the kings of Chanaan, (Calmet) as it had plenty of water and wood in its environs; (Menochius) though perhaps at this time, there were no houses. Saul was here recognized king of all Israel, 1 Kings xi. 14. Tertullian (contra Marc. iv.) supposes, that the twelve stones were placed on the ark, in arcam, which is not at all probable. (Calmet)
But they might be erected in its vicinity, and that may perhaps be the meaning of the author. (Haydock)
R. Levi says the stones were placed near the ark, that all Israel might see them thrice a year. Josephus believes that an altar was formed of them.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
After this Paula visited the tomb of Lazarus and beheld the hospitable roof of Mary and Martha, as well as Bethphage, ‘the town of the priestly jaws.’ Here it was that a restive foal typical of the Gentiles received the bridle of God, and covered with the garments of the apostles offered its lowly back for Him to sit on. From this she went straight on down the hill to Jericho thinking of the wounded man in the gospel, of the savagery of the priests and Levites who passed him by, and of the kindness of the Samaritan, that is, the guardian, who placed the half-dead man upon his own beast and brought him down to the inn of the church. She noticed the place called Adomim or the Place of Blood, so-called because much blood was shed there in the frequent incursions of marauders. …