Joshua 4:5

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Joshua 4:5 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.
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Joshua 4:5 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/joshua/4/5.

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and Joshua said to them, Pass over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up every man of you a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;
World English Bible · Public Domain
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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.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    and Joshua said to them, Pass over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up every man of you a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And Joshua said to them, “Cross over to the face of the Box of Yahweh your God into the midst of the Jordan. And lift up for yourselves, a man one stone, upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel,

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

Versions to compare (up to 4)

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Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    and Joshua said to them, Pass over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up every man of you a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    and said to them, “Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel,
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    and said to them, “Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel,
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    and Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of Jehovah your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    and Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    And Ioshua said vnto them, Go ouer before the Arke of the Lord your God, euen through the middes of Iorden, and take vp euery man of you a stone vpon his shoulder according vnto the nomber of the tribes of the children of Israel,
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    And he said to them: Go before the ark of the Lord your God to the midst of the Jordan, and carry from thence every man a stone on your shoulders, according to the number of the children of Israel,
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    and Joshua saith to them, `Pass over before the ark of Jehovah your God unto the midst of the Jordan and lift up for you each, one stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel,
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    and Joshua says to them, “Pass over before the Ark of your God YHWH into the midst of the Jordan, and each of you lift up one stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel,
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    Joshua said to them, “Go over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And Joshua said to them, “Cross over to the face of the Box of Yahweh your God into the midst of the Jordan. And lift up for yourselves, a man one stone, upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel,
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    and Joshua said to them, Pass before the ark of Jehovah your God into the midst of the Jordan, and lift up each of you a stone [and put it] upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel,
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    Joshua said to them, “Cross before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you pick up a stone and put it on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    And Joshua said to them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    and told them, “Go back into the middle of the Jordan, right in front of the Ark of the Agreement of the Lord your God, and each of you pick up a stone and carry it on your shoulder, one for each of the tribes of Israel.
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    And he said to them, Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of Jordan, and let every one of you take up a stone on his back, one for every tribe of the children of Israel:
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    and Joshua said unto them: 'Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;

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).

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שִׁכְמ֔וֹ
shᵉkem
H7926
“shoulder · his”
Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
Part of Speech
Noun
Type
Common
Gender
Masculine
Number
Singular
State
Construct
Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H7925

TWOT: 2386a

shoulder, back - shoulder, shoulder-blade - back (in general)
  1. וַיֹּ֤אמֶר ʼâmar H559 “and · to say” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  2. יְהוֹשֻׁ֔עַ Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ H3091 “Joshua” Noun, Proper
  3. עִ֠בְרוּ ʻâbar H5674 “pass over” Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural
  4. לִפְנֵ֨י pânîym H6440 “to/for · face(s) of” Preposition + Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Construct
  5. אֲר֧וֹן ʼârôwn H727 “ark of” Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct
  6. יְהוָ֛ה Yᵉhôvâh H3068 “LORD” Noun, Proper
  7. אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֖ם ʼĕlôhîym H430 “God(s) · your” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural
  8. אֶל ʼêl H413 “to” Preposition
  9. תּ֣וֹךְ tâvek H8432 “midst of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
  10. הַיַּרְדֵּ֑ן Yardên H3383 “the · Jordan” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Proper
  11. וְהָרִ֨ימוּ rûwm H7311 “and · rise” Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural
  12. אִ֣ישׁ ʼîysh H376 “man” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
  13. אֶ֤בֶן ʼeben H68 “stone” Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
  14. אַחַת֙ ʼechâd H259 “one” Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
  15. עַל ʻal H5921 “upon” Preposition
  16. לְמִסְפַּ֖ר miçpâr H4557 “to/for · number of” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
  17. שִׁבְטֵ֥י shêbeṭ H7626 “staffs of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct
  18. בְנֵי bên H1121 “sons of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct
  19. יִשְׂרָאֵֽל Yisrâʼêl H3478 “Israel” 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 →

22
words
20
distinct lemmas
Historical
section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is שִׁכְמ֔וֹ shoulder H7926 — appearing just 21 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שִׁכְמ֔וֹ shoulder H7926 occurs in 21 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 3 verbs
  • 14 nouns
  • 1 adjective
  • 4 prepositions

Verb forms

  • וַיֹּ֤אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
  • עִ֠בְרוּ Qal · Imperative
  • וְהָרִ֨ימוּ Hiphil · Imperative

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 44 words from the Hebrew and 43 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 22 Hebrew tokens and 30 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.

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.

Hebrew Joshua 4:5 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר לָהֶם֙ יְהוֹשֻׁ֔עַ עִ֠בְרוּ לִפְנֵ֨י אֲר֧וֹן יְהוָ֛ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֖ם אֶל תּ֣וֹךְ הַיַּרְדֵּ֑ן וְהָרִ֨ימוּ לָכֶ֜ם אִ֣ישׁ אֶ֤בֶן אַחַת֙ עַל שִׁכְמ֔וֹ לְמִסְפַּ֖ר שִׁבְטֵ֥י בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵֽל

and Joshua said to them, Pass over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up every man of you a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 4:5 Septuagint · lemma form

εἶπον αὐτός προςἄγω ἔμπροσθεν ἐγώ πρό πρόσωπον κύριος εἰς μέσος ὁ ἰορδάνης καί ἀνααἱρέω ἐκεῖθεν ἕκαστος λίθος αἴρω ἐπί ὁ ὦμος αὐτός κατά ὁ ἀριθμός ὁ δώδεκα φυλή ὁ ἰσραήλ

said to them, Advance before me in the presence of the Lord into the midst of Jordan, and each having taken up a stone from thence, let him carry it on his shoulders, according to the number of the twelve tribes of Israel:

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)

1

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.

  1. Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
    וַאֲמַר לְהוֹן יְהוֹשֻׁעַ עֲבָרוּ קֳדָם אֲרוֹנָא דַייָ אֱלָהָכוֹן לְגוֹ יַרְדְנָא וַאֲרִימוּ לְכוֹן גְבַר אַבְנָא חָדָה עַל כִּתְפֵיהּ לְמִנְיַן שִׁבְטַיָא דִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל:

    (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.

Commentary

Notes on Joshua 4:5 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

Jos 4:5 And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:

Ver. 5. Before the ark of the Lord your God.] A God in covenant with you, and who therefore may well expect this or any other service from you.

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.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

4:5 Carrying the stone on a shoulder implies that the men each chose stones weighing some 100 pounds.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

John Gill's Exposition

And Joshua said unto them,.... The twelve men:

pass ye over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan; that is, they were to go back to Jordan again, which they had passed over, and go into the midst of it, where were the priests bearing the ark; for it is not to be imagined that the ark went along with them, or followed them, they going before it; but they went where that was, just before it, from whence they were to take the stones, as next directed:

and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder; by which it appears they were large stones they were to take, not what they could carry in their hands, but what they were obliged to take upon their shoulders:

according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; who had that day passed over Jordan, of which these stones were to be a memorial.

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

Of Israel, who had twelve sons. The same expression occurs [in] Deuteronomy xxxii. 8., and must be explained of the immediate sons of Jacob, without including those grandchildren who might be born before his death. (Haydock)

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

Pass over before the ark, i.e. go back again to the place where the ark stands.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

5. Pass over before the ark — Advance to a position immediately in front of the ark, and take up the stones. As this order seems to have been given after the people had crossed, we naturally understand that the twelve men passed back again to the place where the ark rested, and thence transported the stones, while all Israel stood beholding them.

According unto the number of the tribes — A memorial not only of the wonderful interposition of Jehovah, but of the federal unity of the nation — one composed of twelve.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Before the ark - That is, go back again to the place where the ark stands.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

Pass before the Ark. Enter into the Jordan now and cross over until you are in front of the Kohanim.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). 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 22 words (20 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shᵉkem (“shoulder”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. The word shᵉkem carries the sense “shoulder.” How does it shape the verse?
  2. How does Genesis 9:23, which shares the word «shoulder», read alongside this verse?
  3. These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
  4. «וַיֹּ֤אמֶר» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
  5. Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

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Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

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