1 And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. 2 And it came to pass at the end of three days, that the officers went through the camp; 3 and they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then remove from your place, and go after it; 4 yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Ye shall not come near it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go; for ye have not passed this way heretofore. 5 And Joshua said to the people, Hallow yourselves; for to-morrow Jehovah will do wonders in your midst. 6 And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and go over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. 7 And Jehovah said to Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. 8 And thou shalt command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, stand still in the Jordan. 9 And Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of Jehovah your God. 10 And Joshua said, Hereby shall ye know that the living God is in your midst, and [that] he will without fail dispossess from before you the Canaanites, 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 is going over before you into the Jordan. 12 And now take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe. 13 And it shall come to pass, when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan, the waters flowing down from above, shall be cut off, and shall stand up in a heap. 14 And it came to pass when the people removed from their tents, to pass over the Jordan, that the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were before the people; 15 and when they that bore the ark were come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (and the Jordan is full over all its banks throughout the days of harvest), 16 the waters which flowed down from above stood [and] rose up in a heap, very far, by Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan; and those that flowed down towards the sea of the plain, the salt sea, were completely cut off. And the people went over opposite to Jericho. 17 And the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan. And all Israel went over on dry ground, until all the nation had completely gone over the Jordan.
Joshua 3 Darby Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (17)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Joshua 2:1; Mark 1:35; Genesis 22:3; Jeremiah 7:13; Numbers 25:1
- 2 Joshua 1:10–11
- 3 Deuteronomy 31:9; 2 Samuel 6:13; Exodus 13:21–22; Numbers 10:33; Joshua 3:8
- 4 Psalm 89:7; Exodus 3:5; Hebrews 12:28–29; Exodus 19:12; 1 Chronicles 11:2
- 5 Leviticus 20:7; Joshua 7:13; 1 Samuel 16:5; Joel 2:16; John 17:19
- 6 Numbers 10:33; John 14:2–3; Joshua 3:3; Micah 2:13; Numbers 14:15
- 7 Joshua 4:14; Joshua 1:5; 1 Chronicles 29:25; 2 Chronicles 1:1; Psalm 18:35
- 8 Joshua 3:3; Joshua 3:17; 2 Chronicles 31:9–10; 2 Chronicles 35:2–6; 2 Chronicles 29:27
- 9 Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 12:8
- 10 Deuteronomy 7:1; Exodus 33:2; Psalm 44:2–3; Hebrews 10:31; 1 Samuel 17:26
- 11 Zechariah 6:5; Psalm 24:1; Zechariah 4:14; Joshua 3:13; Micah 4:13
- 12 Joshua 4:2; Joshua 4:4; Joshua 4:9
- 13 Exodus 15:8; Psalm 78:13; Joshua 3:11; Joshua 3:15–16; Psalm 33:7
- 14 Acts 7:44–45; Psalm 132:8; Joshua 3:3; Hebrews 9:4; 1 Corinthians 1:24–25
- 15 1 Chronicles 12:15; Jeremiah 12:5; Jeremiah 49:19; Joshua 3:13; Joshua 4:18
- 16 Joshua 3:13; 1 Kings 4:12; 1 Kings 7:46; Genesis 14:3; Deuteronomy 1:1
- 17 Exodus 14:29; Exodus 14:22; Psalm 66:6; Isaiah 25:8; 2 Kings 2:8
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… when touched by the feet of the priests who bore the Ark, stood still from above with bridled stream, while it flowed down from below, where it ran on into the sea, until the whole people passed over, the priests standing on the dry ground. We know these things, but yet we should not imagine in this Psalm, to which …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)