Bible Strands

Joshua 4:21

Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Joshua addresses the Israelites at Gilgal immediately after the twelve stones are erected from the Jordan. He directs them to prepare a future response for their descendants regarding the memorial stones.

The words — יִשְׁאָל֨וּ/ן (yish'a.Lu/n) means "they will ask," and בְּנֵי/כֶ֤ם (be.nei./Khem) translates as "your children." These terms frame the stones as a deliberate prompt for intergenerational inquiry rather than a static monument.

The thread — This instructional pattern appears in Joshua 4:6, where the stones serve as a sign for future questioning, and parallels the generational transmission of divine acts in Psalms 145:4 and Psalms 105:2. The motif links immediate historical action to ongoing communal memory.

Why it lands — The text requires believers to actively prepare factual answers to future questions about God's interventions. It demands that readers treat historical markers as functional tools for teaching rather than passive relics.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

וַיֹּ֛אמֶרva/i.Yo.merand/ he saidאֶל־'el-toבְּנֵ֥יbe.Nei[the] people ofיִשְׂרָאֵ֖לYis.ra.'ElIsraelלֵאמֹ֑רle./Mor<to>/ sayingאֲשֶׁר֩'a.Sherthatיִשְׁאָל֨וּןyish.'a.Lu/nthey will ask/ !בְּנֵיכֶ֤םbe.nei./Khemchildren/ yourמָחָר֙ma.Chartomorrowאֶת־'et-<obj.>אֲבוֹתָ֣ם'a.vo.Ta/mfathers/ theirלֵאמֹ֔רle./Mor<to>/ sayingמָ֖הmahwhat?הָאֲבָנִ֥יםha./'a.va.Nim[are] the/ stonesהָאֵֽלֶּה׃ha./'E.leh<the>/ these

King James Version

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?

Cross-references