SIL Translator’s Notes on Joshua 4:6

4:6a

to serve as a sign among you: The clause to serve as a sign among you states the reason they gathered the twelve stones.

sign: The word sign indicates that these stones were a reminder to the Israelites of how God helped them to cross the Jordan River. When the Israelites saw the stones in the future, they would remember that Yahweh made the Jordan River stop flowing so that they could cross it.

among you: The phrase among you indicates that the stones remained where the men placed them, and were there for people to see whenever they passed by.

4:6b

In the future, when your children ask: The clause In the future, when your children ask refers to the children of the Israelites as well as the future generations of Israelites.

Here is another way to translate this part of the verse:

in the future, when your children and grandchildren ask

4:6c

What do these stones mean to you?: The question What do these stones mean to you? asks why those stones are important to the Israelites.

Here are some other ways of translating this question:

Why are these stones important to you? (NET Bible)
-or-
What event do these stones help you to remember?

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Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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