|
|
|
|
CHAPTER 3
Joshua leads Israel to Jordon—The Lord cuts off the water of Jordan; it stands up as a heap, and Israel passes over on dry ground. |
||
|
1 AND Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.
2 And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; 3 And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the aark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. 4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the away by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore. |
||
|
5 And Joshua said unto the people,
aSanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do
wonders among you.
6 And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. |
||
|
7 ¶ And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will
I begin to amagnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that
they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.
8 And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan. |
||
|
9 ¶ And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God.
10 And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the aliving God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the bCanaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the LORD of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. |
||
|
12 Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man.
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 aheap. |
||
|
14 ¶ And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people;
15 And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) 16 That the awaters which came down from babove cstood and rose up upon an dheap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plaina, even ethe salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. 17 And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on adry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. |
16a those that came down toward the sea
of the plain Now this plain was that upper plain of Moab which had
a 'river' running west out of the east into lower Jordan and thence into the
salt sea as may be determined from the generalized map of that area shown
here. Thus the passage way cleared from the 'heap' or damned water from that
place to the north far from the city Adam beside Zaretan some 30 miles or so
north up the Jordan River 'valley', whereever that may have been, down to
and below where that riverlet of the plain also entered the Jordan was laid
clear that the children of Israel might pass over Jordan. This would be no
narrow passage directly toward Jericho but a substantially wide passage way
of the river bed being dried up the the whole of Israel might walk upon dry
earth into the land of promise. Though not exactly like that of the Red Sea,
the stopping or damning of the Jordan river in a stacked up 'heap' in the
distance to the north and that stoppage of the river from the upper plain of
Moad to open such a wide passage would have been very impressive to have
experienced and seen by the children of Isreal so walking upon the dry
river bed of Jordan from the east bank to its west bank directly toward
Jericho. Certain this lower Jordan 'valley' is well below sea level with
Jericho itself being built around an oasis in the midst of a hot desolate
valley some 840 feet below sea level itself.Now I live in South Clearfield, Davis County Utah which is upon a raised 'sand ridge' near Hill Air Force Base. From my front porch area I can look south down and across the southern end of the Great Salt Lake to the smoke stack(s) of Kennecott Copper, the northern end of the Oquitrh mountain range and toward Tooelle some 30 miles away or so. I can picture the children of Israel so encamped on the also elevated plain of Moab and so similiarly were looking down upon the Jordan river valley and some distance upstream of that below sea level wash to about the city Adam and noting that the water of the Jordan River had been stopped as though by an envisible hand that it stood as a noticable wall of water, a heap of backed up water, stopped so that the whole of Israel would cross over Jordan upon dry ground. [Note: also having worked out at Dugway Proving Grounds, on my long drive back home to Clearfield each evening on I-80 just west of Tooelle, I could see the four large and bright lamp lights along the Hill Air Force ridge marking for the base's jet planes Hill's location upon their return back from their flight ranges out upon the Dugway desert. Again that would be some 40 miles vissionary distance across the southern end of the lower elevation of the Great Salt Lake which would allow such a vissionary distance to be seen.] |
|