Bible Strands
Joshua 3:16
the flowing water stood still. It backed up as far upstream as Adam, a city in the area of Zarethan, while the water flowing toward the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joshua narrates the Israelites' crossing of the Jordan as priests carrying the ark step into the overflowing floodwaters. The event occurs during harvest season when the river normally breaches its banks.
The words — The text records the waters standing still and rising into a single heap far upstream using וַיַּעַמְדוּ (va.ya'amdu, "they stood") and קָמוּ נֵד אֶחָד (qamû nêd 'eḥād, "they rose a heap one"). These terms describe the sudden halt and localized accumulation of the Jordan's current.
The thread — The cutoff flow points toward the Salt Sea noted in Genesis 14:3, while the upstream marker near Zarethan reappears in 1 Kings 4:12. Joshua 3:13 establishes the direct link between the priests' feet touching the water and the river's immediate response.
Why it lands — The passage states the Jordan physically halted to create dry ground for Israel opposite Jericho. It requires the reader to acknowledge that covenant movement depends on divine interruption of natural flood cycles.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Joshua 3:13 When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”
- Genesis 14:3 The latter five came as allies to the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).
- 1 Kings 4:12 Baana son of Ahilud in Taanach, in Megiddo, and in all of Beth-shean next to Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and on past Jokmeam;
- 1 Kings 7:46 The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.
- Numbers 34:3 Your southern border will extend from the Wilderness of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern border will run from the end of the Salt Sea,
- Deuteronomy 1:1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—in the Arabah opposite Suph—between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
- Psalms 114:3 The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;
- Deuteronomy 3:17 The Jordan River in the Arabah bordered it from Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) with the slopes of Pisgah to the east.
- Joshua 15:2 Their southern border started at the bay on the southern tip of the Salt Sea,
- Psalms 29:10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever.