What Does Joshua 4:10 Mean in the King James?
For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names both the matter completed and the word Joshua must speak, binding the crossing to the completion of what has been spoken.
THE MEANING
The word entrusted to your passage and the passage itself belong to one movement: what the LORD commands reaches completion while the ark-bearers hold their place in the river. Then the people hurry across, and the crossing continues into new ground.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; word, matter, or thing.
“every thing / speak” in this verse is davar. English separates the matter being completed from the speaking Joshua is commanded to do, but both grow from the same root. The verse lets the spoken word and the unfolding event share a seed: what is commanded reaches completion within the crossing itself.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, affair, or thing.
דָּבָר
The phrase rendered every thing comes from this word-family, linking what is completed to the word that has been spoken.
ledabber: To speak.
לְדַבֵּר
This is the form used for what the LORD commands Joshua to speak to the people, from the same root as the matter being completed.
וַיַּעַבְרוּ
vayya'avru
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿ-b-r
To pass through, cross, or go beyond.
English passed over can sound like movement past a point, while this word-family also names the passage and the far side. The crossing holds both the route through the water and the movement into new ground.
ALSO GROWS
eber: Beyond, across, or the region on the far side.
עֵבֶר
The root names not only crossing but also the other side toward which the people move.
ma'avar: A passage, crossing place, or ford.
מַעֲבָר
This branch makes the crossing itself a passage through, not merely a departure from the river.
THE PATTERN
Waters that bar a people can become the route through which they reach the other side.
And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.THE THREAD
And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.The same root for crossing appears here, and this verse makes the endpoint explicit: the priests remain in Jordan until all the people are across. The crossing is measured by the whole community reaching the far side.
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