The LORD commanded Israel to take twelve stones from the place where the priests’ feet stood in the Jordan Joshua 4:3. The stones were a memorial so that when children asked what they meant, Israel could recount how the Jordan was cut off before the ark Joshua 4:6–7.
After the whole nation finishes crossing the Jordan, Yahweh tells Joshua to select twelve men, one from each tribe, to take twelve stones from the riverbed where the priests had been standing. They must carry the stones to the night’s camp and set them down there. This scene follows the river crossing in which Israel passes the Jordan while the priests stand with the ark, and it continues the narrative’s focus on public actions that mark the transition into the land.
Joshua 4:1–7 presents a deliberate act of remembering tied to a public event. After everyone finishes crossing the Jordan, Yahweh speaks to Joshua, and Joshua directs Israel to collect twelve stones from the riverbed—specifically from the spot where the priests had been standing firm (an explicit textual detail).
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Joshua 4:3, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
3and command you them, saying, Take hence out of the midst of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests` feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging-place, where you shall lodge this night.