4:7a

you are to tell them: In some languages it may be more natural to express the clause you are to tell them with a direct command. For example:

tell them
-or-
reply to them

4:7b

The waters of the Jordan: The phrase The waters of the Jordan refers to the Jordan River.

were cut off: The phrase were cut off means that Yahweh made the Jordan River stop flowing upstream from where the Israelites were waiting to cross it. It may be more natural for you to express this idea with an active verb, for example:

The Jordan River stopped flowing

It may be necessary to include the agent, who is God. For example, you could say:

God caused the Jordan River to stop flowing

4:7c

before the ark of the covenant of the LORD: It may be more natural in some languages to combine the phrase before the ark of the covenant of the LORD with the phrase in verse 4:7d. For example:

when the priests carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh over the Jordan River
-or-
while the ark of the covenant of Yahweh was crossing the Jordan River

ark of the covenant: See 3:3 for ideas about how to translate this phrase.

4:7d

When it crossed the Jordan: The clause When it crossed the Jordan means that the priests carried the ark across the Jordan River. You may have already combined this clause with the phrase in verse 4:7c.

4:7e

the waters were cut off: The clause the waters were cut off is a repetition of 4:7b. It may be more natural in some languages not to repeat this information. If this repetition is natural in your language, you should translate this clause in the same way that you translated verse 4:7b.

4:7f

Therefore these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever: The sentence these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever repeats the information given in verse 4:6a using different words. It is repeated to show how important these stones were. They reminded the Israelites of the great miracle that Yahweh had done. If this repetition is not natural in your language, it is possible to combine this information with the beginning of verse 6a. You would then need to combine verses 4:6–7 in your numbering of them. For example:

6b Someday your children will ask, 6c “Why are these rocks here?” 7a Then you can tell them 7e how the water stopped flowing 7d when the chest was being carried across the river. 6a These rocks will always remind our people of what happened here today. (Contemporary English Version)

memorial: A memorial is something that helps people to remember. This memorial refers to the stones that reminded the people of Israel of what Yahweh had done.

Here are some other ways to translate this word:

memory-stone
-or-
something to help you remember
-or-
when you see the stones, you will remember

© 2001, 2011, 2020, 2022, 2023 by SIL International®
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.