Josue 4:3
And command them to take out of the midst of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood, twelve very hard stones, which you shall set in the place of the camp, where you shall pitch your tents this night.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et præcipe eis ut tollant de medio Jordanis alveo, ubi steterunt pedes sacerdotum, duodecim durissimos lapides, quos ponetis in loco castrorum, ubi fixeritis hac nocte tentoria.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- σύνταξον αὐτοῖς Καὶ ἀνέλεσθε ἐκ μέσου τοῦ Ἰορδάνου ἑτοίμους δώδεκα λίθους, καὶ τούτους διακομίσαντες ἅμα ὑμῖν καὶ αὐτοῖς θέτε αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ στρατοπεδίᾳ ὑμῶν, οὗ ἐὰν παρεμβάλητε ἐκεῖ τὴν νύκτα.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְצַוּ֣וּ אוֹתָם֮ לֵאמֹר֒ שְׂאֽוּ לָכֶ֨ם מִזֶּ֜ה מִתּ֣וֹךְ הַיַּרְדֵּ֗ן מִמַּצַּב֙ רַגְלֵ֣י הַכֹּהֲנִ֔ים הָכִ֖ין שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵ֣ה אֲבָנִ֑ים וְהַעֲבַרְתֶּ֤ם אוֹתָם֙ עִמָּכֶ֔ם וְהִנַּחְתֶּ֣ם אוֹתָ֔ם בַּמָּל֕וֹן אֲשֶׁר תָּלִ֥ינוּ ב֖וֹ הַלָּֽיְלָה
Haydock's commentary
Hard. The Hebrew term is referred by some to the priests, "from the station of the priests, prepared, or standing firm," (chap. iii. 17,) by others to the stones, which were to be prepared, hard, or exactly twelve. (Calmet)
The Septuagint have taken it in the latter sense, "twelve stones ready," or such as they might easily find, in the place where the priests had stood. They were of a flinty nature, (Haydock) that they might perpetuate the memory of this event. (Menochius)
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 Irenaeus Against Heresies: Book I, Chapter XVIII. Passages from Moses,
4. As to the Duodecad, in connection with which the mystery of the passion of the defect occurred, from which passion they maintain that all things visible were framed, they assert that is to be found strikingly and manifestly everywhere [in Scripture]. For they declare that the twelve sons of Jacob, from whom also sprung twelve tribes, the breastplate of the high priest, which bore twelve precious stones and twelve little bells, the twelve stones which were placed by Moses at the foot of the mountain, the same number which was placed by Joshua in the river, and again, on the other side, the bearers of the ark of the covenant, those stones which were set up by Elijah when the heifer was offered as a burnt-offering; the number, too, of the apostles; and, in fine, every event which embraces in it the number twelve , set forth their Duodecad. …
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. …