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Passage Research

Joshua 4 — Sermon Preparation

Twelve stones taken from the middle of the Jordan are set up at Gilgal as a permanent memorial to the miraculous crossing. Below is a research summary for Joshua 4, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.

24
verses
390 / 115
Hebrew words / lemmas
10
classic sermon excerpts
4
preachers & commentators

Joshua 4 in the Hebrew

Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.

HebrewTransliterationStrong'sCountGlosses
יַרְדֵּןYardênH338317Jarden
יְהוֹשׁוּעַYᵉhôwshûwaʻH309112Jehoshua
עָבַרʻâbarH567413cross, transition
אֶבֶןʼebenH688stone
אָרוֹןʼârôwnH7277box
כֹּהֵןkôhênH35488officiating, priest
עָשָׂרʻâsârH62406ten, -teen

How preachers through history handled this text

10 public-domain excerpts on Joshua 4, from the church fathers to the Puritans.

Matthew Henry4Calvin3Alexander MacLaren2John Wesley1

“It is the duty of parents to tell their children betimes of the words and works of God, that they may be trained up in the way they should go. In all the instruction parents give their children, they should teach them to fear God. Serious godliness is the best learning. Are we not called, as much as the Israelites, to praise the loving-kindness of our God? Shall we not raise a pillar to our God, who has brought us through dangers and distresses in so wonderful a way? For hitherto the Lord hath helped us, as much as he did his saints of old. …”

— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on Joshua 4:20–30 (Public Domain)

Places in the text

Based on ancient-geography data

  • Jordan— Josh 4:1
  • Jericho 1— Josh 4:13

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