Bible Verses About Stones: Memorial pillars of

Ya'akov got up early in the morning, took the stone he had put under his head, set it up as a standing-stone, poured olive oil on its top

and named the place Beit-El [house of God]; but the town had originally been called Luz.

Ya'akov took this vow: "If God will be with me and will guard me on this road that I am traveling, giving me bread to eat and clothes to wear,

so that I return to my father's house in peace, then ADONAI will be my God;

and this stone, which I have set up as a standing-stone, will be God's house; and of everything you give me, I will faithfully return one-tenth to you."

Ya'akov took a stone and set it upright as a standing-stone.

Then Ya'akov said to his kinsmen, "Gather some stones"; and they took stones, made a pile of them and ate there by the pile of stones.

Lavan called it Y'gar-Sahaduta ["pile of witness" in Aramaic], while Ya'akov called it Gal-'Ed ["pile of witness" in Hebrew].

Lavan said, "This pile witnesses between me and you today."This is why it is called Gal-'Ed

and also HaMitzpah [the watchtower], because he said, "May ADONAI watch between me and you when we are apart from each other.

If you cause pain to my daughters, or if you take wives in addition to my daughters, then, even if no one is there with us, still God is witness between me and you."

Lavan also said to Ya'akov, "Here is this pile, and here is this standing-stone, which I have set up between me and you.

May this pile be a witness, and may the standing-stone be a witness, that I will not pass beyond this pile to you, and you will not pass beyond this pile and this standing-stone to me, to cause harm.

"Take for yourselves from the people twelve men, a man from every tribe;

and give them this order: 'Take twelve stones from the middle of the Yarden riverbed, where the cohanim are standing, carry them over with you and set them down in the place where you will camp tonight.'"

Y'hoshua called the twelve men whom he had chosen from the people of Isra'el, a man from every tribe,

and said to them, "Go on ahead of the ark of ADONAI your God into the riverbed of the Yarden. Then, each of you take a stone on his shoulder, corresponding to the number of tribes of the people of Isra'el.

This will be a sign for you. In the future, when your children ask, 'What do you mean by these stones?'

you will answer them, 'It's because the water in the Yarden was cut off before the ark for the covenant of ADONAI; when it crossed the Yarden, the water in the Yarden was cut off; and these stones are to be a reminder for the people of Isra'el forever.'"

The people of Isra'el did just as Y'hoshua had ordered. They took twelve stones out of the Yarden riverbed, as ADONAI had said to Y'hoshua, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the people of Isra'el, carried them over with them to the place where they were camping, and set them down there.

Y'hoshua also set up twelve stones in the Yarden River itself, in the place where the feet of the cohanim carrying the ark for the covenant had stood. They are there to this day.

Those twelve stones which they took out of the Yarden, Y'hoshua piled up at Gilgal.

Then he said to the people of Isra'el, "In the future, when your children ask their fathers what these stones mean,

you are to explain it to them by saying, 'Isra'el came over this Yarden on dry land.

For ADONAI your God dried up the water in the Yarden from in front of you, until you had crossed, just as ADONAI your God did to the Sea of Suf, which he dried up from in front of us, until we had crossed.