Joshua 4:6

6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’

Joshua 4:6 in Other Translations

6 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, 'What do those stones mean to you?'

6 We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’

6 so you'll have something later to mark the occasion. When your children ask you, 'What are these stones to you?'

6 so that this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean to you?'

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 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe,

5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites,

6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’

7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down.

Cross References

• 1. S Joshua 2:12
• 2. S Exodus 10:2
• 3. ver 21; Exodus 12:26; S Exodus 13:14