The verbs choose and command in Hebrew are plural, as in 3.12 where Joshua speaks to the people, and not singular; the Traduction œcuménique de la Bible footnote suggests that originally the order was given to the leaders, not just to Joshua alone. English versions do not reflect this difference between singular and plural imperative forms. Choose twelve men, one from each tribe may be rendered “Choose one man from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.” The twelve men, representatives of the twelve tribes, are to take one stone each from the Jordan, from the very place where the priests were standing, and take them to the place where the people will spend the first night on the west side of the river.It should be noted that in the Masoretic text hakin in verse 3 is to be parsed as the hiphil infinitive of the verb k-w-n “to stand”; Soggin calls it “a curious form” and says it makes no sense here; but there are other explanations. New English Bible treats it as having the same meaning as haken in 3.17, “stood firmly.”

Command them to take twelve stones could possibly be ambiguous, suggesting that each of the men was to take twelve stones. To avoid this ambiguity one may render “Command them each to take a stone.” For some languages it may be necessary to include a verb of motion, which may involve a slight reordering of the command: “command them to go to the place where the priests were standing in the middle of the Jordan River. Tell each of them to take a stone from there and carry it to the place where you will camp tonight.” In this restructuring, put them down is left implicit, but in some languages this aspect of the command may also need to be stated explicitly.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .