What Does Joshua 14:6 Mean?
Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said to him, You have known the word that the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and you in Kadeshbarnea.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea.THE KEY
What the KJV separates into “thing” and “said” is one Hebrew root: the spoken word itself is the matter Caleb brings forward.
THE MEANING
A word spoken about you can remain present even when a long delay separates you from the moment it was spoken. Knowing here is more than holding information; it is recognizing a reality shared with another person. Caleb speaks of the word as something still claimable, still between him and Joshua.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A word loses its force once enough time passes.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
D-B-R
To speak; a spoken word, matter, or thing.
English makes “thing” and “said” sound like separate ideas, but Hebrew repeats the root דבר: Caleb recalls the spoken matter itself. The word is not only a sound; it is the matter still named between them.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This is the word KJV renders “thing”; the matter Caleb brings forward is itself a davar.
dibber: Spoke.
דִּבֶּר
This is the verb KJV renders “said,” sharing its root with “thing” and binding the spoken act to the matter spoken.
יָדַעְתָּ
yadata
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
Y-D-ʿ
To know or perceive through recognition and encounter.
“have known” in this verse is yadata. The word carries knowing beyond stored information: it can name recognition through relationship and encounter. Caleb appeals to knowledge Joshua shares, making the recalled word a common reality between them.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or perceive.
יָדַע
This is the verb behind “knowest,” giving Caleb’s appeal the sense of shared recognition.
da'at: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows knowing as a recognized understanding, not merely a passing sound.
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ
Yehoshua
GROWS FROM
י־שׁ־ע
Y-Š-ʿ
To deliver or bring out; in the name Yehoshua, YHWH delivers.
Joshua’s name carries the nature of deliverance: YHWH brings out. The word recalled here concerns Joshua by name, so the promise is tied to deliverance as well as to shared memory.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: To deliver or bring out.
יָשַׁע
This root gives Joshua’s name its deliverance sense and links the person addressed to the word being recalled.
yeshuah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun from the same root names the outcome carried in Joshua’s name.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word can remain active across delay until what it names comes into view.
And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had spoken.There fell not one good word of all that the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all of it came.And Flourishing is she who leaned her full weight, for there will be a completion of what was spoken to her from beside the LORD.THE THREAD
Surely you shall not enter the land for which I lifted my hand to make you settle in it, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.This is the wording Caleb points toward: it names Caleb and Joshua together within the promise concerning the land. “Concerning me and thee” is exact, the word Caleb recalls has both of them in view.
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