What Does Joshua 4:6 Mean in the King James?
That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?
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 sign is a memory made visible so a question can open its meaning.
THE MEANING
This sign is among you now: it makes memory visible enough for a child to ask what it means. The question is part of the sign’s purpose; meaning moves through what can be asked and answered, reaching beyond the person who first remembers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that a child’s question means the memory has failed. Here, the question is the sign opening its meaning.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁאָלוּן
yish’alun
GROWS FROM
שאל
To ask, inquire, or request.
“ask” in this verse is yish’alun. The marker does not replace speech; it calls speech forth. A question is not a gap in remembrance but the opening through which remembrance becomes shareable.
ALSO GROWS
she’elah: A question or request.
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun from שאל shows that asking gives remembrance a form that can be spoken and answered.
sha’ul: Asked for, requested.
שָׁאוּל
This form from שאל carries the sense of something sought through asking, echoing how the visible sign draws out the story it holds.
THE PATTERN
A visible remembrance carries forward when it awakens a question that can be answered.
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.THE THREAD
And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?The Hebrew root שאל (sha’al, ask) appears in both verses: the children’s asking is the hinge that makes the stones a sign. This verse repeats the question in the scene itself, showing the sign’s meaning opening through what the child asks.
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