Joshua 4:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, as Yahweh spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הַמָּל֔וֹן

mâlôwn

H4411

“the · inn”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 8× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 42:27

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H3885

TWOT: 1096a

place of lodging, inn, khan

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 →

28: words
23: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is הַמָּל֔וֹן inn H4411 — appearing just 8 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הַמָּל֔וֹן inn H4411 occurs in 8 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

6 verbs
13 nouns
2 adjectives
3 prepositions
2 adverbs
2 particles

Verb forms

וַיַּעֲשׂוּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
צִוָּ֣ה Piel · Perfect
וַיִּשְׂא֡וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
דִּבֶּ֤ר Piel · Perfect
וַיַּעֲבִר֤וּם Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
וַיַּנִּח֖וּם Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בְּנֵי son H1121 ×2
יִשְׂרָאֵ֘ל Israel H3478 ×2
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ֒ Joshua H3091 ×2
כַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר which H834 ×2
אֶל to H413 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 56 words from the Hebrew and 52 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 28 Hebrew tokens and 42 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

Topical passages linked to Joshua 4:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Joshua 1:16–18 They answered Joshua, saying, All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.
Joshua 4:2–5 Take twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,
Joshua 4:20 Those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, did Joshua set up in Gilgal.

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.

Hebrew Joshua 4:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כֵ֣ן בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵ֘ל כַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר צִוָּ֣ה יְהוֹשֻׁעַ֒ וַיִּשְׂא֡וּ שְׁתֵּֽי עֶשְׂרֵ֨ה אֲבָנִ֜ים מִתּ֣וֹךְ הַיַּרְדֵּ֗ן כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר דִּבֶּ֤ר יְהוָה֙ אֶל יְהוֹשֻׁ֔עַ לְמִסְפַּ֖ר שִׁבְטֵ֣י בְנֵֽי יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַיַּעֲבִר֤וּם עִמָּם֙ אֶל הַמָּל֔וֹן וַיַּנִּח֖וּם שָֽׁם

The children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, as Yahweh spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 4:8 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ποιέω οὕτως ὁ υἱός ἰσραήλ καθότι ἐντέλλομαι κύριος ὁ ἰησοῦς καί λαμβάνω δώδεκα λίθος ἐκ μέσος ὁ ἰορδάνης καθάπερ συντάσσω κύριος ὁ ἰησοῦς ἐν ὁ συντέλεια ὁ διάβασις ὁ υἱός ἰσραήλ καί διακομίζω ἅμα ἑαυτοῦ εἰς ὁ παρεμβολή καί ἀποτίθημι ἐκεῖ

And the children of Israel did so, as the Lord commanded Joshua; and they took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, (as the Lord commanded Joshua, when the children of Israel had completely passed over,) and carried these stones with them into the camp, and laid them down there.

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.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וַעֲבָדוּ כֵן בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כְּמָא דִי פַּקֵד יְהוֹשֻׁעַ וּנְטַלוּ תַּרְתָּא עַשְׂרֵי אַבְנַיָא מִגוֹ יַרְדְנָא כְּמָא דְמַלֵיל יְיָ עִם יְהוֹשֻׁעַ לְמִנְיַן שִׁבְטַיָא דִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאַעַבְּרוּנוּן עִמְהוֹן לְבֵית מַבָּתָא וְאַצְנְעוּנוּן תַּמָן:

(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 4:8 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 4:8 And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.

Ver. 8. And the children of Israel did so,] i.e., The twelve select men, representing the whole people.

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded--that is, it was done by their twelve representatives.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8-9) According to the number of the tribes. . . .—Every tribe was represented by a stone on either side Jordan. The two cairns represent a complete Israel in the wilderness, and a complete Israel in the promised land. “Thou shalt remember all the way that the Lord thy God led thee.” “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

8. unto the place] “On the upper terrace of the plain of the Jordan, which became the centre of the first sanctuary of the Holy Land—the first place pronounced ‘holy,’ the sacred place of the Jordan valley (Jos_5:10-15), where the Tabernacle remained till it was fixed at Shiloh” (Jos_18:1).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded,.... That is, the twelve men taken out of the twelve tribes of Israel, and who were the representatives of them in this action:

and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; they took the exact number, and out of the very place Joshua was ordered to direct them to do:

and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged: which, as Josephus says (i), was fifty furlongs from Jordan, which was above six miles; so far they carried these stones on their shoulders:

and laid them down there; which afterwards were put in proper order by Joshua, or at least by his direction.

(i) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Laid them down there - i. e. in Gilgal Jos 4:20. Spoken of as the doers of this, because it was done by the twelve who acted for them.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

8. Israel did so — They did so by their twelve representatives, according to the old law-maxim: Qui facit per allure, facit per se — “He who acts through another acts through himself.”

And laid them down — They did not construct them into a monument. This Joshua did afterwards. Jos_4:20.

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

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

Joshua and Israel continue to do as Yahweh commanded.

they picked up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan

This refers to the twelve men picking up stones from the middle of the Jordan River bed. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan

These were twelve additional stones, not the stones that the twelve men carried from the river bed. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

The memorial is there to this day

This means the memorial was there to the day that the author was writing this book.

translationWords

people group

Israel

Joshua

command

Jordan River

Yahweh

priest

ark of the covenant

memorial

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

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 28 words (23 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mâlôwn (“inn”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “inn” (mâlôwn) shape what this verse is saying?
Genesis 42:27 shares the word «inn» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“son” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
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 «וַיַּעֲשׂוּ» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 28 Hebrew ↔ 42 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 22 words in this verse.
“son” occurs 2× in this single verse.
23 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 28 words in this verse.