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Joshua 4:11

in Joshua 4

and after everyone had finished crossing, the priests with the ark of the LORD crossed in the sight of the people.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of Jehovah passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.

KJV

And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the Lord passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.

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This verse in Joshua 4

Commentary

1 note on this verse

This site's exposition

priests which bare the ark

on Joshua 4:10-11

The priests hold the middle of the channel until every word is finished, and the people cross at speed. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the haste as weakness set beside the priests' steadiness, while Clarke reads it as what any man would do walking a riverbed with the water piled upstream, and takes the detail as the mark of an eyewitness. Verse 10 says the orders came according to all that Moses commanded Joshua, and the charge Moses gave him at Deuteronomy 3:28 and 31:7 carries none of these details, so the writer knows of instruction Scripture does not preserve in full.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

And it was when all the people had finished crossing and the Ark crossed. The Ark did not cross as the others did, but in the manner explained below: 3 Verse.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Joshua 4:11:1, via Sefaria, The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Until the the completion of everything. This is as we learn in Masches Sotah, 34a: While they were standing in the Jordan, Yehoshua said to them, “You must know the purpose for which you are crossing the Jordan.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Joshua 4:10:1, via Sefaria, The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיְהִ֛יand it was

    vayhiH1961 →3559 times

  • כַּֽאֲשֶׁר־just when

    kaasher-H834 →5497 times

  • תַּ֥םit had finished

    tamH8552 →63 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • הָעָ֖םthe people

    haamH5971 →1873 times

  • לַֽעֲב֑וֹרto pass over

    laavorH5674 →556 times

  • וַיַּעֲבֹ֧רand it passed over

    vaiyaavorH5674 →556 times

  • אֲרוֹן־[the] ark of

    ʾaron-H727 →202 times

  • יְהוָ֛הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • וְהַכֹּהֲנִ֖יםand the priests

    vehakohanimH3548 →750 times

  • לִפְנֵ֥י<to> before

    lifneiH6440 →2123 times

  • הָעָֽם׃the people

    haamH5971 →1873 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Joshua 3:17

    The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over the dry ground, until the entire nation…

    it leads to

    • Exodus 14:22

      and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on their right and on their left.

    • Exodus 14:29

      But the Israelites had walked through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on their right and on their left.

    • Psalms 66:6

      He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the waters on foot; there we rejoiced in Him.

    • Isaiah 25:8

      He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.

    • Joshua 4:3

      and command them: ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests were standing, carry them with you, and set them down in the place where you spend…

  • Through

    Joshua 4:18

    When the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up out of the Jordan and their feet touched the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their course…

    it leads to

    • Joshua 3:15

      Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,

  • Through

    Joshua 3:8

    Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the waters, stand in the Jordan.’”

    it leads to

    • Joshua 3:3

      and commanded the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, you are to set out from your positions and follow it.

    • Joshua 3:17

      The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over the dry ground, until the entire nation…

About Joshua

The Walls of Jericho Fall Down, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Walls of Jericho Fall Down, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Joshua: the study guide →Read Joshua 4 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Joshua 4 →