Joshua 3:16

the waters which came down from above Let us try to realise the scene;

(a) At a distance of about 2000 cubits, or a mile, from the river stood the great mass of the army (Joshua 3:4).

(b) On the broken edge of the river were the priests bearing on their shoulders the sacred Ark;

(c) As soon as the feet of the priests were "dipped in the brim of the water," the flow of the stream was arrested;

(d) Far up, beyond where they stood, at the city of Adam, that is beside Zaretan, about 30 miles from the place where the host was encamped, the waters which rushed down from above "stood and rose upon an heap," drawn up by the Divine Hand;

(e) At the same moment the waters that came down toward the Salt Sea "failed and were cut off" (Joshua 3:16), and thus from north to south the waters were "driven backwards" (Psalms 114:3), and the dry river-bed was exposed to view.

from the city Adam is a correction of the text. The Hebrew has, at the city Adam, which was situated, it is thought, where now we find the ford Damiehwith remains of a bridge of the Roman period (Van de Velde, Narrative, 11. 322).

beside Zaretan Or, more correctly, Zarthan(1 Kings 4:12; 1 Kings 7:46), the situation of which is unknown, but it is thought to have been near Succoth, at the mouth of the Jabbok (1 Kings 7:46). By some it has been identified with the modern Surtabeh, an isolated hill some 17 miles above Jericho, where high rocks compress the Jordan Valley within its narrowest limits, and seem almost to throw a barrier across it.

the sea of the plain This name, which also occurs in Deuteronomy 3:17; Deuteronomy 4:49, is used for the Dead Sea, the waters of which are clear, but strongly tinctured with salt, and fatal to fish.

failed "The scene presented is of the descending stream," not -parted asunder," as we generally fancy, but as the Psalm (Psalms 114:3) expresses it, - turned backwards;" the whole bed of the river left dry from north to south, through its long windings; the huge stones lying bare here and there, imbedded in the soft bottom; or the shingly pebbles drifted along the course of the channel." Stanley's Lectures, p. 232.