Joshua 4:6

6 that this may be a sign in your midst. When your children ask hereafter, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

Joshua 4:6 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 4:6

That this may be a sign among you
A commemorative one:

[that] when your children ask [their fathers] in time to come;
or "tomorrow" ^F7 and so in all time, or any time hereafter:

saying, what mean you by these stones?
what is the reason of setting them up, and in this place, and being just of such a number?

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 (rxm) (aurion) , Sept. "eras", Pagninus, Montanus.

Joshua 4:6 In-Context

4 And Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had appointed of the children of Israel, a man out of every tribe;

5 and Joshua said to them, Pass before the ark of Jehovah your God into the midst of the Jordan, and lift up each of you a stone [and put it] upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel,

6 that this may be a sign in your midst. When your children ask hereafter, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

7 then ye shall say to them, That the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah; when it went through the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

8 And the children of Israel did so, as Joshua had commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, as Jehovah had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the lodging-place, and laid them down there.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit. 'to-morrow;' and so ver. 21.