Joshua 3:17

Stood firm, i.e. in one and the same place and posture; their feet neither moved by any waters flowing in upon them, nor sinking into any mire, which one might think was at the bottom of the river. And this may be opposed unto their other standing in the brink of the water when they came to it, commanded Joshua 3:8, which was but for a while, till the waters were divided and gone away; and then they were to go farther, even into the midst of Jordan, as is here said, where they are to stand constantly and fixedly, as this Hebrew word signifies, until all were passed over. If it be said that what is prescribed Joshua 3:8, is here said to be executed, and therefore the midst of Jordan here is the same place with the brink of the water of Jordan, Joshua 3:8; it may be answered, that the manifest variation of the phrase shows that it is not absolutely the same thing or place which is spoken of there and here; but what is there enjoined is here executed with advantage; for when it is said that they stood firm...in the midst of Jordan, it must needs be supposed that they first came to the brink of the water, and that they stood there for a season, till the waters were cut off and dried up, as appears from the nature of the thing; and that then they went farther, even into the midst of Jordan. In the midst of Jordan: either,

1. Within Jordan, as it is expressed above, Joshua 3:8; for that phrase doth not always signify the exact middle of a place, but any part within it, as appears from Genesis 45:6 Exodus 8:22, Exodus 24:18 Joshua 7:13, Joshua 10:13 Proverbs 30:19. Or rather,

2. In the middle and deepest part of the river. For,

1. Words should be taken properly, where they may without any inconveniency, which is the case here.

2. The ark went before them to direct, and encourage, and secure them in the dangers of their passages, for which ends the middle was the fittest place.

3. In this sense the same phrase is used, Joshua 4:3,8; for certainly those stones which were to be witnesses and monuments of their passage over Jordan should not be taken from the brink or brim of the river, or from the shore which Jordan overflowed only at that season, but from the most inward and deepest parts of the river; and Joshua 3:16, where the priests are said to ascend or come up out of Jordan, and out of the midst of Jordan unto the dry land; whereas had this been meant only of the first entrance into the river, they must have been said first to go down into Jordan, and then to go up to the land.