וְהוֹדַעְתֶּ֖ם אֶת בְּנֵיכֶ֣ם לֵאמֹ֑ר בַּיַּבָּשָׁה֙ עָבַ֣ר יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶת הַיַּרְדֵּ֖ן הַזֶּֽה
Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Joshua 4:22
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Joshua 4:22 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
Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
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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
Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
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King James Version Public Domain
Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
then you shall cause your sons to know, saying, ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.’
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
Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
you are to tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
you are to tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’
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King James Version Public Domain
Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
Then ye shall shew your children, and say, Israel came ouer this Iorden on dry land:
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
You shall teach them and say: Israel passed over this Jordan through the dry channel.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
then ye have caused your sons to know, saying, On dry land Israel passed over this Jordan;
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
Then you have caused your sons to know, saying, Israel passed over this Jordan on dry land;
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
Tell your children, 'This is where Israel crossed over the Jordan on dry ground.'
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
then you shall cause your sons to know, saying, ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.’
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Darby Bible Public Domain
then ye shall let your children know, saying, On dry land did Israel come over this Jordan;
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
Then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
you can explain to them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
Then give your children the story, and say, Israel came over this river Jordan on dry land.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
then ye shall let your children know, saying: Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
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 →
Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →
בַּיַּבָּשָׁה֙
yabbâshâh
H3004
“in/at the · dry land”
Preposition, Determined + Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
- Appears 14× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Genesis 1:9
- Part of Speech
- Preposition + Noun
- Type
- Common
- Gender
- Feminine
- Number
- Singular
- State
- Absolute
Full BDB Definition
dry land, dry ground
- וְהוֹדַעְתֶּ֖ם yâdaʻ H3045 “and · to know” Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural
- אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
- בְּנֵיכֶ֣ם bên H1121 “sons · your” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural
- לֵאמֹ֑ר ʼâmar H559 “to say” Preposition + Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct
- בַּיַּבָּשָׁה֙ yabbâshâh H3004 “in/at the · dry land” Preposition, Determined + Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
- עָבַ֣ר ʻâbar H5674 “to pass over” Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל Yisrâʼêl H3478 “Israel” Noun, Proper
- אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
- הַיַּרְדֵּ֖ן Yardên H3383 “the · Jordan” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Proper
- הַזֶּֽה zeh H2088 “the · this” Particle, Definite Article + Pronoun, Demonstrative, Masculine, Singular
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 →
- 10
- words
- 9
- distinct lemmas
- Historical
- section
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is בַּיַּבָּשָׁה֙ dry land H3004 — appearing just 14 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
בַּיַּבָּשָׁה֙ dry land H3004 occurs in 14 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 3 verbs
- 4 nouns
- 1 pronoun
- 2 particles
Verb forms
- וְהוֹדַעְתֶּ֖ם Hiphil · Sequential Perfect
- לֵאמֹ֑ר Qal · Infinitive Construct
- עָבַ֣ר Qal · Perfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 12 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 10 Hebrew tokens and 11 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
8Topical passages linked to Joshua 4:22 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Joshua 3:17 The priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel passed over on dry ground, until all the nation were passed clean over the Jordan.
- Isaiah 51:10 Isn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
- Exodus 14:29 But the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left.
- Exodus 15:19 For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea.
- Psalms 66:5–6 Come, and see God's deeds-- Awesome work on behalf of the children of men.
- Isaiah 11:15–16 Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind will he wave his hand over the River, and will strike it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.
- Isaiah 44:27 who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers;
- Revelation 16:12 The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sunrise.
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.
ἀναἀγγέλλω ὁ υἱός σύ ὅτι ἐπί ξηρός διαβαίνω ἰσραήλ ὁ ἰορδάνης
Tell your sons, that Israel went over this Jordan on dry land,
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
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)
וּתְהוֹדְעוּן יַת בְּנֵיכוֹן לְמֵימָר בְּיַבֶּשְׁתָּא עֲבַר יִשְׂרָאֵל יַת יַרְדְנָא הָדֵין:
(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 10 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is yabbâshâh (“dry land”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- The word yabbâshâh carries the sense “dry land.” How does it shape the verse?
- Genesis 1:9 shares the word «dry land» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
- The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
- The verb «וְהוֹדַעְתֶּ֖ם» is Hiphil Sequential Perfect. How does its form color the action?
- Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?
Things to notice
- This verse counts 10 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
- These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
- 9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Joshua 4:22 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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword 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.
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.