Chapter 3

1 Bright and early the next morning Joshua and the Israelites left Shittim and came to the Jordan. They camped there before crossing the river. 2 After three days the leaders went through the camp 3 and commanded the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, you must leave here and walk behind it. 4 But stay about 3,000 feet behind it. Keep your distance so you can see which way you should go, for you have not traveled this way before.” 5 Joshua told the people, “Ritually consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will perform miraculous deeds among you.” 6 Joshua told the priests, “Pick up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they picked up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people. 7 The Lord told Joshua, “This very day I will begin to honor you before all Israel, so they will know that I am with you just as I was with Moses.⁠ 8 Instruct the priests carrying the ark of the covenant, ‘When you reach the bank of the Jordan River, wade into the water.’” 9 Joshua told the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God!” 10 Joshua continued, “This is how you will know the living God is among you and that he will truly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. 11 Look! The ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth is ready to enter the Jordan ahead of you. 12 Now select for yourselves 12 men from the tribes of Israel, one per tribe. 13 When the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the Lord, the Lord of the whole earth, touch the water of the Jordan, the water coming downstream toward you will stop flowing and pile up.”⁠ 14 So when the people left their tents to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 When the ones carrying the ark reached the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the surface of the water—(the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest time)—⁠ 16 the water coming downstream toward them stopped flowing. It piled up far upstream at Adam (the city near Zarethan); there was no water at all flowing to the sea of the rift valley (the Salt Sea). The people crossed the river opposite Jericho. 17 The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan. All Israel crossed over on dry ground until the entire nation was on the other side.

Texts in conversation

Compare Joshua 3:15 and Letter of Aristeas 116

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

Summary

In Joshua 3, the Jordan is in flood all through harvest time. The Letter of Aristeas makes the Jordan rise at harvest just like the Nile, so that the river of Judea can match the famous river of Egypt.

Passages

Joshua 3:15

Hebrew Bible

14 So when the people left their tents to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 When the ones carrying the ark reached the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the surface of the water—(the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest time)— 16 the water coming downstream toward them stopped flowing. It piled up far upstream at Adam (the city near Zarethan); there was no water at all flowing to the sea of the rift valley (the Salt Sea). The people crossed the river opposite Jericho. 17 The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan. All Israel crossed over on dry ground until the entire nation was on the other side.

600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Joshua

Letter of Aristeas 116

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates

since it is well watered in all directions and well protected from storms. The river Jordan, as it is called, which never runs dry, flows through the land. Originally (the country) contained no less than 60 million acres-though afterwards the neighboring peoples made incursions against it - and 600,000 men were settled on it in farms of a hundred acres each. The river like the Nile rises in harvest- time and irrigates a large portion of the land. Near the district belonging to the people of Ptolemais it issues into another river and this flows out into the sea. Other mountain torrents, as they are called, flow down into the plain and encompass the parts around Gaza and the district of

200–150 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Letter of Aristeas

References

“... Ps.-Aristeas’s remarks about the Jordan River explicitly compare it with the Nile, even to the point of exaggeration about the Jordan’s geography and behavior, although the comment could also allude to Josh 3:15, which says that the Jordan overflows its banks during the harvest time. Within the idealizing context of these paragraphs, Ps.-Aristeas’s claim that the Jordan floods like the Nile, encircles the country, and empties into a river that flows to the sea helps to accomplish a literary goal. Whereas earlier we saw that Jerusalem compared very favorably to Alexandria and, in fact, it had fewer problems than the Egyptian city, here the countryside also compares favorably with idealized descriptions from Greek tradition that view Egypt (and India) through a utopian lens. One can compare especially Agatharcides’s descriptions of the Nile and Megasthenes’s reports about the Ganges and Indus rivers (all transmitted in Diodorus Siculus 3.10 [Nile] and 2.35–42 [Ganges and Indus]). ...”

Benjamin G. Wright III, The Letter of Aristeas: ‘Aristeas to Philocrates’ or ‘On the Translation of the Law of the Jews’ (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), 230.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Joshua24 chapters

Compare Joshua 3:15 and Letter of Aristeas 116

Summary

Passages

Joshua 3:15

Letter of Aristeas 116

References

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