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James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Joshua 3:2-3

"And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the midst of the camp; and they commanded the people, When ye see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it."The chronology of the narrative here follows no stereotyped pattern. "There can be no reasonable doubt that the spies had returned before the order given in Joshua 1:10, and there is no need to suppose that each separate... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Joshua 3:2

Ver. 2. And—after three days—the officers went through the host— Not that they passed through it after the people had continued three days on the banks of the Jordan, but at the end of the three days mentioned chap. Jos 1:10-11 in which we follow Usher's calculation. Immediately on Joshua's taking upon him the conduct of Israel, he sent spies to make a discovery of Jericho and its environs: after which, he proclaimed in the camp, that they were to prepare themselves for marching at the first... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Joshua 3:2

2-4. the officers went through the host; And they commanded the people—The instructions given at this time and in this place were different from those described ( :-). read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Joshua 3:1-6

Joshua may have moved the nation from Shittim to the Jordan’s edge at approximately the same time he sent the spies on their mission (cf. Joshua 3:1-2; Joshua 1:11; Joshua 2:22). However, the sequence of events was probably as it appears in the text. Chapter 1 Joshua 3:11 describes one three-day period during which the spies were in Jericho and the hills. A second, overlapping three-day period began on the next day (day four) with the people’s arrival at Shittim (Joshua 3:1), and concluded two... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Joshua 3:1-12

B. Entrance into the land 3:1-5:12The entrance into the land was an extremely important event in the life of Israel. The writer marked it off in three major movements. Each one begins with a command from God to Joshua (Joshua 3:7-8; Joshua 4:1-3; and Joshua 4:15-16), followed by the communication of the command to the people, and then its execution. The way the narrator told the story seems designed to impress on the reader that it was Yahweh who was bringing His people miraculously into the... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Joshua 3:1-17

The Passage of JordanThis is the initial miracle of Joshua’s leadership. Its moral effect upon the Israelite host is suggested in Joshua 3:7 and Joshua 4:14 that wrought upon the Canaanites in Joshua 5:1 (which properly belongs to this section of the book). 3. The ark of the covenant of the Lord your God] see Exodus 25:10-22 and Exodus 37:1-9. It was the authoritative symbol of the Divine Presence (cp. Exodus 23:20.), and as such led the van in the desert marches (Numbers 10:33-36). The priests... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Joshua 3:2-6

(2-6) PRELIMINARY ORDERS.—The priests are to bear the ark. This was usually the duty of the Levites of the family of Kohath; but both at the passage of Jordan and the taking of Jericho, the priests were employed as bearers. The people must be sanctified, as they were in preparation for the giving of the law at Sinai (in Exodus 19:0). And the ark itself takes, in some sense, a fresh position. The space of 2,000 cubits was left between the head of the column of Israelites and the ark, in order... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Joshua 3:1-17

Joshua 3:0 'In the mosaics of the earliest churches of Rome and Ravenna,' says Dean Stanley, 'before Christian and pagan art were yet divided, the Jordan appears as a river-god pouring his streams out of his urn. The first Christian Emperor had always hoped to receive his long-deferred baptism in the Jordan up to the moment when the hand of death struck him at Nicomedia.... Protestants, as well as Greeks and Latins, have delighted to carry off its waters for the same sacred purpose to the... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Joshua 3:1-7

CHAPTER VIII.JORDAN REACHED.Joshua 3:1-7. THE host of Israel had been encamped for some time at Shittim on the east side of the river Jordan. It is well to understand the geographical position. The Jordan has its rise beyond the northern boundary of Palestine in three sources, the most interesting and beautiful of the three being one in the neighbourhood of Caesarea Philippi. The three streamlets unite in the little lake now called Huleh, but Merom in Bible times. Issuing from Merom in a single... read more

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