“Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,
We may well imagine how busy Joshua and all the men of war were while they were passing over Jordan, when besides their own marching into an enemy's country, and in the face of the enemy, which could not but occasion them many thoughts of hear, they had their wives, and children, and families, their cattle, and tents, and all their effects, bag and baggage...
Commenting on Joshua 4:1-9
Take you twelve men out of the people,.... Joshua had before this ordered twelve men to be taken from among them, which seems to have been done of himself; and now he has a direction from God for it, and what to employ them in: out of every tribe a man; so that what they did was in the name of the several tribes, and as representing them.
And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. (g) Either tarrying till the people were past, or as some read, sure, as though they had been on dry land.
Commenting on Joshua 4:1-2