וַיְצַ֣ו יְהוֹשֻׁ֔עַ אֶת הַכֹּהֲנִ֖ים לֵאמֹ֑ר עֲל֖וּ מִן הַיַּרְדֵּֽן
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Joshua 4:17
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Joshua 4:17 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan.
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King James Version Public Domain
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Joshua commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.”
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up from the Jordan.”
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up from the Jordan.”
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King James Version Public Domain
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of the Jordan.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
Ioshua therefore commanded the Priests, saying, Come ye vp out of Iorden.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And he commanded them, saying: Come ye up out of the Jordan.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
And Joshua commandeth the priests, saying, `Come ye up out of the Jordan.'
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
And Joshua commands the priests, saying, “Come up out of the Jordan.”
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
So, Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Joshua commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.”
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And Joshua commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, “Come up out of the Jordan!”
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
So Joshua told the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
So Joshua gave orders to the priests, saying, Come up now out of Jordan.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying: 'Come ye up out of the Jordan.'
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
Word by word
More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →
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הַיַּרְדֵּֽן
Yardên
H3383
“the · Jordan”
Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Proper
- Appears 183× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Genesis 13:10
- Part of Speech
- Particle + Noun
- Type
- Proper
Full BDB Definition
Jordan = "descender"
- the river of Palestine running from the roots of Anti-Lebanon to the Dead Sea a distance of approx 200 miles (320 kilometers)
- וַיְצַ֣ו tsâvâh H6680 “and · to command” Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- יְהוֹשֻׁ֔עַ Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ H3091 “Joshua” Noun, Proper
- אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
- הַכֹּהֲנִ֖ים kôhên H3548 “the · priests” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
- לֵאמֹ֑ר ʼâmar H559 “to say” Preposition + Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct
- עֲל֖וּ ʻâlâh H5927 “go up” Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural
- מִן min H4480 “from” Preposition
- הַיַּרְדֵּֽן Yardên H3383 “the · Jordan” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Proper
About this verse
These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
- 8
- words
- 8
- distinct lemmas
- Historical
- section
Grammatical profile
- 3 verbs
- 3 nouns
- 1 preposition
- 1 particle
Verb forms
- וַיְצַ֣ו Piel · Sequential Imperfect
- לֵאמֹ֑ר Qal · Infinitive Construct
- עֲל֖וּ Qal · Imperative
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 12 words from the Hebrew and 11 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 10 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.
Cross-references
4Topical passages linked to Joshua 4:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Genesis 8:16–18 "Go forth from the ark, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you.
- Acts 16:23 When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely,
- Acts 16:35–39 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying, "Let those men go."
- Daniel 3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace: he spoke and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth out of the midst of the fire.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
καί ἐντέλλομαι ἰησοῦς ὁ ἱερεύς λέγω ἐκβαίνω ἐκ ὁ ἰορδάνης
And Joshua charged the priests, saying, Go up out of Jordan.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
On this verse, Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
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Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
וּפַקֵיד יְהוֹשֻעַ יַת כַּהֲנַיָה לְמֵימָר סַקוּ מִן יַרְדְנָא:
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Lesson kit
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Joshua, in the Historical, opens this verse with 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Yardên (“Jordan”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- How does “Jordan” (Yardên) shape what this verse is saying?
- Genesis 8:16–18 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
- These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
- The verb «וַיְצַ֣ו» is Piel Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
- Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?
Things to notice
- This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 10 Greek words.
- These translations choose different wording for 2 words in this verse.
- 8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Joshua 4:17 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
Trapp's Complete Commentary
John Trapp
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
unfoldingWord translationNotes
Door43 World Missions Community
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.