Joshua 3:13

Jos 3:13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, [that] the waters of Jordan shall be cut off [from] the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.

Ver. 13. That the waters of Jordan shall be cut off.] A wonderful work of God, and much admired by the psalmist; {Psa 114:3; Psa 114:5} as was that - and worthily if it were true - by the philosopher, when from the hill Etna there ran down a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabout; in the midst of those fearful flames, God’s special care of the godly, saith he, shined most brightly: ο γαρ πυρος ποταμος εξεχισθη, for the river of fire was divided, and a kind of lane made for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents, and pluck them out of the jaws of death. {a}

{a} Aristot., De Mundo, cap. vi.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:13 Even though the Jordan was in its spring flood stage, the water stopped abruptly, an obvious miracle.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(13) The soles of the feet of the priests.—Observe that the priests, the ark-bearers, did not stand in the middle of the bed of the river, but at the edge of the flood. They had no need to advance further. As soon as their feet “rested” in the overflow, “Jordan was driven back.” The waters descending from the north as it were recoiled and shrank away, and stood up in “one heap.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. shall be cut off] See below, Jos_3:16.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord,.... Which they were bid to take up and carry, Jos 3:6,

the Lord of all the earth; this shows that not the ark, but the Lord, is called "the Lord of all the earth"; see Gill on Jos 3:11,

shall rest in the waters of Jordan; the meaning is, as soon as their feet should touch them, or they should set their feet in them, when they came to the brink of them:

that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; from above the place where the priests came, and the children of Israel after passed over:

and they shall stand upon an heap; or one heap; stop and rise up high, as if piled up one upon another, and stand unmoved. This had been made known to Joshua by divine revelation, and is what he hints at, Jos 3:5; and now plainly speaks out, and foretells before it came to pass; and which must serve to magnify Joshua, as in Jos 3:7; and give him great credit and honour among the people.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heap. Hebrew, "the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off: the waters that come down from above, even they shall stand as upon a heap," like mountains of ice. The Vulgate informs us what became of the waters (Haydock) below this division. Where it took place we do not find recorded, so that we cannot know exactly how large a space would be left dry. Calmet allows, "near six leagues," ver. 4, and 16. But here, supposing that the Jordan was divided over-against Jericho, he says, that "the waters running off into the Dead Sea, would, in all probability, leave not less than two or three thousand paces of the channel dry." Interruptus aquis fluxit prior amnis in æquor;

Ad molem stetit unda fluens. -----Lucan, Phar. ii.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

As soon as the soles of the feet of the priests shall rest in the waters of Jordan; that so it may appear that this is the Lord’s doing, and that in pursuance and for the accomplishment of his covenant made with Israel.

The Lord of all the earth; the Lord of all this terrestial globe made of earth and water, who therefore can dispose of this river and the adjoining land as he pleaseth.

The waters which now are united shall be divided, and part shall flow down the channel towards the Dead Sea, and the other part, that is nearer the spring or rise of the river, and flows down from it, shall stand still. They shall stand upon an heap, being as it were congealed, as the Red Sea was, Exo 15:8, and so kept from overflowing all the country.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. The Lord — Hebrews, Jehovah.

The Lord of all the earth — The efficient cause of the miracle.

Shall rest in the waters — The Jordan had two, and in some places three, banks. See cut and note Mat_3:6. At its flood it over-flowed the first and second banks, and covered the whole space between the terraces formed by the second and third banks. The waters on each side would be comparatively shallow. Here the priests were to stand or rest in the shoal water on the eastern bank until the waves receded, and the river’s channel was made bare; then they advanced into the midst of the channel of the Jordan, and there stood until all the people had crossed. Jos_3:17.

The waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down — Grammatically, waters that come down is in apposition with waters of Jordan, and the word from, supplied in our English version, is incorrect and misleading. It is better to omit from, and substitute namely, and render, The waters of Jordan shall be cut off, namely, the waters that come down from above.

And they shall stand upon a heap — Or, stand up, one mass. The word for heap is best understood by referring to its use in the description of the division of the Red Sea in Exo_15:8, and in Psa_78:13. By comparing these passages with Exo_14:22, where it is said, “The waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left,” we arrive at the conclusion that the phenomenon presented by the word heap was that of an upright mass of water held back by Omnipotence. {We take the meaning to be that just above the crossing the waters were “congealed,” or solidified, as if dammed up by an invisible perpendicular wall across the channel, causing the waters above to overflow all the banks. Below the miraculous dam the channel ran dry to the Dead Sea.} Compare note on Jos_3:16. No natural agent was employed in the working of this miracle. In the division of the Red Sea the Lord caused a strong east wind to blow all night, when Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. Exo_14:21. But in the passage of the Jordan “there was neither wind nor tide, to the agency of which the effect could be attributed; and if the river way actually passed, at a high stage of its waters, without boats or bridges, the evidence of the miracle was irresistible — the current must have been suspended by supernatural power.” In the most degenerate periods of Jewish history this great miracle was never once questioned. So far as we know even the skeptical and materialistic Sadducees, who sifted the traditions of the elders with a destructiveness rivaling the German rationalists, never assailed this manifest token of supernatural power in their nation’s induction into the Land of Promise.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Lord, the Lord of all the earth. The original is, Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth. That the waters of Jordan shall be cut off. The construction here seems to have perplexed the LXX, Vulgate, and English translators. The former have given the sense, but have changed the construction. The second have supposed WtreKyi to mean fail, and to refer to the waters below the place of crossing. The third have interpolated the word "from." The words "the waters descending from above" are in apposition to, and explanatory of, the words "the waters" above. If for "from" in our version we substitute "namely," we shall express the meaning of the original. The Masorites point thus, dividing the verb from what follows by Zakeph Katon. A heap. (cf. Psa_38:7) The original is picturesque, "and they shall stand, one heap."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The ark of the Lord - That so it may appear this is the Lord's doing, and that in pursuance of his covenant made with Israel. Of all the earth - The Lord of all this globe of earth and water, who therefore can dispose of this river and the adjoining land as he pleaseth. Cut off - The waters which now are united now shall be divided, and part shall flow down the channel towards the dead sea, and the other part that is nearer the spring of the river, and flows down from it, shall stand still. An heap - Being as it were congealed, as the Red-Sea was, Exod. xv, 8, and so kept from overflowing the country.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The waters that descend from above. Coming down from the heights which is the way of all flowing rivers.

And will stand in one massive mound. As the water flows down to the place where it will be cut off, it will be unable to flow further downstream, but will be gathered and piled up, and grow higher, layer upon layer.

Mound. Similar to: ‘He gathers like a mound,’ ‘a mound of harvest.’ These are expressions of height, and so did Menachem connect them.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.