Joshua 3:16

_THAT THE WATERS WHICH CAME DOWN FROM ABOVE STOOD AND ROSE UP UPON AN HEAP VERY FAR FROM THE CITY ADAM, THAT IS BESIDE ZARETAN: AND THOSE THAT CAME DOWN TOWARD THE SEA OF THE PLAIN, EVEN THE SALT SEA, FAILED, AND WERE CUT OFF: AND THE PEOPLE PASSED OVER RIGHT AGAINST JERICHO._ The waters which came down, х_ HAYORªDIYM_ (H3381)] - descended rapidly. FROM ABOVE - i:e., from the sea of Galilee. STOOD AND ROSE UP UPON AN HEAP, х_ NEED_ (H5067) _ 'ECHAAD_ (H259), one mound; Septuagint, peegma hen] (Psalms 33:7; Psalms 78:13: see the note at Exodus 1

14-17 Jordan overflowed all its banks. This magnified the power of God, and his kindness to Israel. Although those who oppose the salvation of God's people have all advantages, yet God can and will conquer. This passage over Jordan, as an entrance to Canaan, after their long, weary wanderings in the wilderness, shadowed out the believer's passage through death to heaven, after he has finished his wanderings in this sinful world. Jesus, typified by the ark, hath gone before, and he crossed the river when it most flooded the country around. Let us treasure up experiences of His faithful and tender care, that they may help our faith and hope in the last conflict....

Verse Joshua 3:16. _ROSE UP UPON A HEAP_] That is, they continued to accumulate, filling up the whole of the channel toward the source, and the adjacent ground over which they were now spread, to a much greater depth, the power of God giving a contrary direction to the current. We need not suppose them to be gathered up _like a_ _mountain, instar montis_, as the _Vulgate_ expresses it, but that they continued to flow back in the course of the channel; and ere they could have reached the lake of Gennesareth, where they might have been easily accumulated, the whole Israelitish army would have all got safely to the opposite side. _VERY FAR FROM THE CITY ADAM - BESIDE ZARETAN_] Where these places were it is difficult to say. The city _Adam_ is wholly unknown. From 1

The passage should run “rose up, an heap far away, by Adam, the city which is beside Zarthan.” The city of Adam is not named elsewhere, and Zarthan (mentioned here and in marginal references.) has also disappeared. It is, however, probably connected with the modern Kurn Sartabeh (Horn of Sartabeh), the name given to a lofty and isolated hill some 17 miles on the river above Jericho....

EXPOSITION THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN— JOSHUA 3:7 THIS DAY WILL I BEGIN TO MAGNIFY THEE. "_Neque enim ante mysterium baptismi exal-tatur Jesus, sed exaltatio ejus, et exaltatio in conspectu pepuli, inde sunlit exordium_" (Orig; Hem. 4 on Joshua. Cf. Matthew 3:17; Luke 3:22). JOSHUA 3:8 AND THOU SHALT COMMAND THE PRIESTS. We have not here the whole command. That is to be found in Joshua 3:

THAT THE WATERS WHICH CAME DOWN FROM ABOVE,.... Above where the priests' feet rested, and which came down from Mount Lebanon, and the fountains of Jordan northward: STOOD [AND] ROSE UP UPON AN HEAP; they stopped their current, and as the water came down they rose up on high, and made one vast heap of waters: VERY FAR FROM THE CITY OF ADAM, THAT IS, BESIDE ZARETAN; the Cetib, or textual reading, is, "in Adam the city"; we follow the marginal reading, "from Adam": both readings, as is usually, if not always the case, are to be received; and the meaning is, that this heap of waters, though the river was at a considerable distance from Adam; yet through the overflow of it, it reached to, and was "in Adam": this city was in Perea, on the other side Jordan, that side on which the Israelites were before their passage; and Zaretan, which is supposed to be the same with Zartanah, and Zarthan,...

3. THE PASSAGE OF JORDAN CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The Ark of Jehovah going before (Joshua 3:1)_ 2. Jehovah's words to Joshua (Joshua 3:7) 3. Joshua's words to the people (Joshua 3:9) 4. The passage accomplished (Joshua 3:14) The River Jordan divided the people from the promised land. To be in the land Jordan had to be crossed. Jordan, overflowing all its banks at that time (verse 15), rolled its dark waters between them and their God-given possession. Only the power of God could bring them through those dark waters. It was a miracle which took place, when a way was opened and “the waters which came down from above stood

JOSHUA 3:1 TO JOSHUA 5:1. THE CROSSING OF JORDAN. Here we begin to meet with more serious difficulties. The old tradition was that after the Israelites had crossed the Jordan, they commemorated the event by the erection of twelve stones. But this simple narrative existed in two recensions, which differed as to the destination of these memorial stones. According to one account, they were to be placed in the midst of the river; according to the other, they were to be set up on the W. side of the Jordan in the place where the army encamped for the night. Deuteronomic additions have been made to these narratives, _i.e._ additions of a religious colouring as in Joshua 3:7, And Yahweh said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in t

ADAM. The waters were divided at (or near) the city "Adam", and they were heaped up at (or near) "Zaretun", another city far off from "Adam". ZARETAN in the land of Manasseh. Called Zartanah in 1 Kings 4:12. The brazen vessels of the temple were cast there in the plain of Jordan (1 Kings 7:46. SEA OF THE PLAIN: i.e. the Dead Sea. SALT SEA. Figure of speech. _Polyonymia._ App-6. THE PEOPLE PASSED OVER.. way cleft through the sea (Exodus 14), through the river (Joshua 3), and in the future through the air Philippians 3:14

Jordan turned backwards 14. _when the people removed_ i.e. on the 10th day of Abib or Nisan, the same month they before witnessed the departure from Egypt, corresponding to our April or May....