1And Joshua will rise early in the morning; and they will remove from Shittim and they will come even to Jordan, he and all the sons of Israel, and they will pass the night there before they will pass over. 2And it will be from the end of three days and the scribes will pass through in the midst of the camp. 3And they will command the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites lifting it up, and ye shall remove from your place and go after it. 4But it shall be far off between you and between it, about two thousand cubits by measure: ye shall not draw near to it so that ye shall know the way which ye shall go in it; for ye passed not through the way from yesterday the third day. 5And Joshua will say to the people, Consecrate yourselves, for to-morrow Jehovah will do wonderful things in the midst of you. 6And Joshua will say to the priests, saying, Lift up the ark of the covenant and pass through before the people. And they will lift up the ark of the covenant and will go before the people. 7And Jehovah will say to Joshua, This day I will begin to make thee great in the eyes of all Israel, that they shall know that as I was with Moses I will be with thee. 8And thou shalt command the priests lifting up the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye come to the extremity of the water of Jordan ye shall stand in Jordan. 9And Joshua will say to the sons of Israel, Come near here and hear the words of Jehovah your God. 10And Joshua will say, By this ye shall know that the living God is in the midst of you; and destroying, he will destroy from your face the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Hivite and the Perizzite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the Jebusite. 11Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passing through before you into Jordan. 12And now take to you twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man, one man to a tribe. 13And it was as the soles of the feet of the priests lifting up the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, rested in the water of Jordan, the water of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters coming down from above; and they shall stand one heap. 14And it shall be in the people's removing from their tents to pass through Jordan, and the priests lifting up the ark of the covenant before the people; 15And as they lifting up the ark come to Jordan, and the feet of the priests lifting up the ark were dipped in the extremity of the waters (and Jordan was filled up to all its banks all the days of harvest,) 16And the waters coming down from above will stand, they rose up one heap very far off in Adam, the city which is by the side of Zaretan; and coming down upon the sea of the desert, the salt sea, they ceased, they were cut off: and the people passed through over against Jericho. 17And the priests lifting up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah will stand firm upon the dry land that in the midst of Jordan, and all Israel passing over upon the dry till all the peoples finished to pass over Jordan.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 JOSHUA COMES TO JORDAN. (
Josh 3:1-
Josh 3:6)
Joshua rose early in the morning--On the day following that on which the spies had returned with their encouraging report. The camp was broken up in "Shittim" (the acacia groves), and removed to the eastern bank of the Jordan. The duration of their stay is indicated (
Josh 3:2), being, according to Hebrew reckoning, only one entire day, including the evening of arrival and the morning of the passage; and such a time would be absolutely necessary for so motley an assemblage of men, women, and children, with all their gear and cattle to make ready for going into an enemy's country.
2 the officers went through the host; And they commanded the people--The instructions given at this time and in this place were different from those described (
Josh 1:11).
3 When ye see the ark . . ., and the priests the Levites bearing it--The usual position of the ark, when at rest, was in the center of the camp; and, during a march, in the middle of the procession. On this occasion it was to occupy the van, and be borne, not by the Kohathite Levites, but the priests, as on all solemn and extraordinary occasions (compare
Num 4:15;
Josh 6:6;
1Kgs 8:3-6).
then ye shall . . . go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it--These instructions refer exclusively to the advance into the river. The distance which the people were to keep in the rear of the ark was nearly a mile. Had they crowded too near the ark, the view would have been intercepted, and this intervening space, therefore, was ordered, that the chest containing the sacred symbols might be distinctly visible to all parts of the camp, and be recognized as their guide in the untrodden way.
5 Joshua said unto the people--rather "had said," for as he speaks of "to-morrow," the address must have been made previous to the day of crossing, and the sanctification was in all probability the same as Moses had commanded before the giving of the law, consisting of an outward cleansing (
Exod 19:10-
Exod 19:15) preparatory to that serious and devout state of mind with which so great a manifestation should be witnessed.
6 Joshua spake unto the priests--This order to the priests would be given privately, and involving as it did an important change in the established order of march, it must be considered as announced in the name and by the authority of God. Moreover, as soon as the priests stepped into the waters of Jordan, they were to stand still. The ark was to accomplish what had been done by the rod of Moses.
7 THE LORD ENCOURAGES JOSHUA. (
Josh 3:7-
Josh 3:8)
the Lord said to Joshua, This day will I . . . magnify thee in the sight of all Israel--Joshua had already received distinguished honors (
Exod 24:13;
Deut 31:7). But a higher token of the divine favor was now to be publicly bestowed on him, and evidence given in the same unmistakable manner that his mission and authority were from God as was that of Moses (
Exod 14:31).
9 JOSHUA ENCOURAGES THE PEOPLE. (
Josh 3:9-
Josh 3:13)
Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord--It seems that the Israelites had no intimation how they were to cross the river till shortly before the event. The premonitory address of Joshua, taken in connection with the miraculous result exactly as he had described it, would tend to increase and confirm their faith in the God of their fathers as not a dull, senseless, inanimate thing like the idols of the nations, but a Being of life, power, and activity to defend them and work for them.
14 THE WATERS OF JORDAN ARE DIVIDED. (
Josh 3:14-
Josh 3:17)
And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, &c.--To understand the scene described we must imagine the band of priests with the ark on their shoulders, standing on the depressed edge of the river, while the mass of the people were at a mile's distance. Suddenly the whole bed of the river was dried up; a spectacle the more extraordinary in that it took place in the time of harvest, corresponding to our April or May--when "the Jordan overfloweth all its banks." The original words may be more properly rendered "fills all its banks." Its channel, snow-fed from Lebanon, was at its greatest height--brimful; a translation which gives the only true description of the state of Jordan in harvest as observed by modern travellers. The river about Jericho is, in ordinary appearance, about fifty or sixty yards in breadth. But as seen in harvest, it is twice as broad; and in ancient times, when the hills on the right and left were much more drenched with rain and snow than since the forests have disappeared, the river must, from a greater accession of water, have been broader still than at harvest-time in the present day.
16 the waters which came down from above--that is, the Sea of Galilee
stood and rose up upon a heap--"in a heap," a firm, compact barrier (
Exod 15:8;
Ps 78:13);
very far--high up the stream;
from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan--near mount Sartabeh, in the northern part of the Ghor (
1Kgs 7:46); that is, a distance of thirty miles from the Israelitish encampment; and
those that came down toward the sea of the desert--the Dead Sea--were cut off (
Ps 114:2-
Ps 114:3). The river was thus dried up as far as the eye could reach. This was a stupendous miracle; Jordan takes its name, "the Descender," from the force of its current, which, after passing the Sea of Galilee, becomes greatly increased as it plunges through twenty-seven "horrible rapids and cascades," besides a great many lesser through a fall of a thousand feet, averaging from four to five miles an hour [LYNCH]. When swollen "in time of harvest," it flows with a vastly accelerated current.
the people passed over right against Jericho--The exact spot is unknown; but it cannot be that fixed by Greek tradition--the pilgrims' bathing-place--both because it is too much to the north, and the eastern banks are there sheer precipices ten or fifteen feet high.
17 the priests . . . and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground--the river about Jericho has a firm pebbly bottom, on which the host might pass, without inconvenience when the water was cleared off.