What Does Joshua 6:6 Mean?
And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, Lift the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests lift seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD.
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
And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD.THE KEY
The ark and the trumpets are both placed under the Hebrew verb nasa, so the procession begins as one act of carrying.
THE MEANING
The verse brings you into a sequence: the ark is taken up, and seven priests carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets before it. The center is borne by human hands while its signal goes ahead, revealing movement as an ordered act of carrying.
THE ROOT
שְׂאוּ
se’u
GROWS FROM
נָשָׂא
nasa
To lift, carry, or bear; in some expressions, to bear or take away guilt.
“lift” in this verse is se’u. English separates “take up” from “bear,” but Hebrew repeats nasa in both commands: the ark and the horns enter one action of carrying. The same root can describe bearing wrongdoing in the language of forgiveness, holding together the senses of taking up weight and its removal.
ALSO GROWS
se’u: Take up; lift or carry.
שְׂאוּ
This form commands the priests to take up the ark.
yis’u: They shall bear or carry.
יִשְׂאוּ
The same root appears again for the priests carrying the trumpets, a repetition hidden by the English wording.
nōsēʾ ʿāwōn: Bearing guilt; forgiving wrongdoing.
נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן
Exodus 34:7 uses this expression for “forgiving iniquity,” showing the root’s wider range beyond carrying objects.
THE PATTERN
Passage is made possible when bearers carry what cannot move itself.
And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the set-apart place and all its vessels, as the camp pulls up, then the sons of Kohath shall come to lift it. But they shall not touch any set-apart thing, lest they die. These are the loads of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting.And they came to him, bringing a paralyzed man, lifted by four.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
So you shall say to Joseph, "Release, I pray you now, the rebellion of your brothers, and their falling short, for they did you evil. And now, we pray you, release the rebellion of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept as they spoke to him.Joshua’s priests are told to carry the ark and horns with nasa. Joseph’s brothers use the same verb when asking him to forgive their trespass, showing how the root links carrying with bearing wrongdoing in forgiveness.
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