TEXT [Commentary]

3.   Crossing on the Jordan’s dry bed (3:14-17)

14 So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. 15 It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, 16 the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea[*] until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.

17 Meanwhile, the priests who were carrying the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant stood on dry ground in the middle of the riverbed as the people passed by. They waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground.

NOTES

3:15 the harvest season. At Jericho, the barley and wheat harvest usually stretched from early March to late May (Hareuveni 1980:52-53).

the Jordan was overflowing its banks. In the lower Jordan, this resulted from the spring runoff of the winter’s rainfall and snowfall (the latter especially from Mount Hermon) in the valleys of the Jordan, the Yarmuk, and the Jabbok rivers.

3:16 Adam . . . near Zarethan. Adam, modern Damiya, is about 19 miles upstream from Jericho. Zarethan has not been positively identified.

the Dead Sea. The Hebrew text has “the Sea of the Arabah,” followed by a scribal note incorporated into the text, “[that is,] the Salt Sea,” the normal biblical Hebrew name for this body of water. The name “Dead Sea” is not used in the OT.

near the town of Jericho. Lit., “facing Jericho,” i.e., in full view of anyone on the watch atop Jericho’s east-facing defensive wall. God’s people did not sneak into the land God had promised them.

3:17 the whole nation. Heb., kol-haggoy; here and again in 4:1, goy [TH1471, ZH1580] is used of Israel, which is rare. Usually, goy designates foreign nations or peoples. Here, the emphasis is on Israel as an ethnic and political entity, rather than as the chosen people of God in a religious sense.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Ancient Near Eastern annalists and historians often employed a narrative sequence of command, performance, and (sometimes) report. Following this pattern, the writer of Joshua related God’s commands to Joshua, and Joshua’s to the people, about crossing the Jordan. He then immediately recorded that Joshua and the people had done as instructed; the command must be seen to have its fulfillment. This technique, combined with the nonchronological sequencing of significant narrative elements discussed above, is not always easy for modern readers to understand.

Furthermore, in the Hebrew text, 3:14-16 is one sentence, and its main verbs come only in 3:16. Though many words and phrases are repetitions from the previous paragraph’s command, it would be a mistake to hurry over this paragraph. The author also included new information, both because it is important, and to avoid monotony in the story. This long sentence tells us that the water stopped flowing from upstream as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant touched the edge of the Jordan’s overflowing waters (3:15-16). Yet the priests themselves continued to move forward until they were standing in the middle of the Jordan’s normal bed (3:17). Then all the people crossed, passing by the priests who stood still once they had reached the middle.

The long sentence also reveals the water stopped flowing “a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan” (3:16). The usual naturalistic explanation is that the Jordan’s flow was blocked by an earth dam. The earth dam was created by a landslide from the Jordan’s banks, probably triggered by an earthquake. Historically, the banks of the Jordan at Adam/Damiyeh have been liable to being undercut by the current more than at many other places. Earth dams created by landslides (some triggered by earthquakes) have occurred in AD 1160, 1267, 1546, 1834, 1906, and 1927; they have stopped the Jordan’s flow from 16 hours up to two days (Wood 1990a:54; quoting Nur, referencing Garstang). Did God stop the Jordan’s waters on Israel’s behalf in the same way? Since we cannot verify a natural cause for that stoppage, there is no historical certainty that there was one. God can and sometimes does act without utilizing natural means. That natural earth dams have stopped the Jordan’s flow six times in the last 900 years, however, would suggest that perhaps Joshua’s stoppage, too, resulted from an earthquake triggering a landslide at Adam, since this is precisely the location mentioned in the account.

If this explanation is accepted, was the stopping of the Jordan still a miracle? If we define a miracle as God’s unusual (though not always supernatural) intervention in earthly events for God’s glory and the benefit of God’s people, then it was. With the Jordan in flood, Israel could not have crossed by any human means available to them. Just as God has the right to choose whether or not to intervene, so God has the right to choose whether to intervene by natural or by supernatural means. Either way, it was a miracle in the biblical sense, for the modern distinction between God’s supernatural acts and those involving his extraordinary providence was not known to the biblical writers.

However we may explain it, two wonders occurred; first, the water began backing up at Adam. Whatever the cause, the effect was that the waters of the Jordan were dammed up at this spot. The second wonder, caused by the first, occurred downstream. The Jordan had been well over its normal banks; then the entire course of the river, including its normal bed, which carries water year-round, became dry! That, too, would have been a most unusual sight. The phrase “on dry ground,” repeated twice in 3:17, emphasizes once again the extraordinary nature of this event.

This emphasizes, too, the effectiveness of God’s intervention. The bed of the Jordan was so dry and firm that the priests could stand in the middle of it without slipping or falling, and all the people, even the elderly, the infirm, and parents carrying infants, could cross safely. When God acts, God acts effectively.