Paragraph 4:4–7

4:4

There is implied information at the beginning of 4:4. It does not say explicitly that Joshua chose the men. You may wish to include this implied information.

Here is a way to translate the implied information:

⌊Joshua chose one man from each tribe,⌋ and then he called the twelve men

4:4a

So Joshua summoned the twelve men: The phrase Joshua summoned the twelve men indicates that Joshua gathered the twelve men he had chosen in order to give them God’s command.

from the Israelites: The phrase from the Israelites emphasizes that these men were all Israelite men. It may be redundant to translate this phrase in some languages, because it is clear from previous verses that these were Israelite men. It may be more natural to leave this phrase implicit.

4:4b

he had appointed: The phrase he had appointed refers to the men that Joshua chose to carry the stones.

one from each tribe: A similar phrase is found in 4:2b. The purpose of one from each tribe was so that each tribe had a representative.

General Comment on 4:4

It might be helpful to reorder the phrases and to include the implied information. Some other ways to translate this verse are:

⌊Joshua chose one man from each of the twelve Israelite tribes.⌋ Then he called them together
-or-
Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed to represent the twelve Israelite tribes

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