Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 3:16
That the waters which came down from above stood [and] rose up upon a 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.
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 (Jos 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” (Jos 3:16), and thus from north to south the waters were “driven backwards” (Psa 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 Damieh with remains of a bridge of the Roman period (Van de Velde, Narrative, 11. 322).
beside Zaretan ] Or, more correctly, Zarthan (1Ki 4:12; 1Ki 7:46), the situation of which is unknown, but it is thought to have been near Succoth, at the mouth of the Jabbok (1Ki 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 Deu 3:17; Deu 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 (Psa 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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The passage should run rose up, an heap far away, by Adam, the city which is beside Zarthan.
The city of Adam is not named elsewhere, and Zarthan (mentioned here and in marginal references.) has also disappeared. It is, however, probably connected with the modern Kurn Sartabeh (Horn of Sartabeh), the name given to a lofty and isolated hill some 17 miles on the river above Jericho.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. Rose up upon a heap] That is, they continued to accumulate, filling up the whole of the channel toward the source, and the adjacent ground over which they were now spread, to a much greater depth, the power of God giving a contrary direction to the current. We need not suppose them to be gathered up like a mountain, instar montis, as the Vulgate expresses it, but that they continued to flow back in the course of the channel; and ere they could have reached the lake of Gennesareth, where they might have been easily accumulated, the whole Israelitish army would have all got safely to the opposite side.
Very far from the city Adam – beside Zaretan] Where these places were it is difficult to say. The city Adam is wholly unknown. From 1Kg 4:12 we learn that Zartanah was below Jezreel near Bethshean, or Scythopolis, and not far from Succoth, 1Kg 7:46. And it appears from Ge 33:17, Jos 13:27, that Succoth lay on the east side of Jordan, not far from the lake of Gennesareth; and probably Adam was on the same side to the north of Succoth. It is probable that the Israelites crossed the Jordan near Bethabara, where John baptized, Joh 1:28, and which probably had its name, the house of passage, from this very circumstance. After all, it is extremely difficult to ascertain the exact situation of these places, as in the lapse of upwards of 3,000 years the face of the country must have been materially changed. Seas, rivers, and mountains, change not; and though we cannot ascertain the spot, it is sufficiently evident that we can come near to the place. It has been considered a lame objection against the truth of the Iliad that the situation of Troy cannot now be exactly ascertained. There are even many ancient cities and considerable towns in Europe, that, though they still bear their former names, do not occupy the same spot. There are not a few of those even in England; among such Norwich, Salisbury, c., may be ranked, neither of which is in its primitive situation.
Right against Jericho.] It would be impossible for the whole camp to pass over in the space opposite to Jericho, as they must have taken up some miles in breadth, besides the 2,000 cubits which were left on the right between them and the ark but the river was divided opposite to Jericho, and there the camp began to pass over.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The waters rose up upon an heap; which having been affirmed by heathen writers to have been done by magicians, it is great impudence to disbelieve or doubt of Gods power to do it.
Adam, that is beside Zaretan: the city Adam being more obscure, is described by its nearness to a more known place, Zaretan, or Zarthan, which some think is the same place mentioned 1Ki 4:12; 7:46; but it rather seems to have been another place then eminent, but now unknown, as many thousands are. The meaning is, that the waters were stopped in their course at that place, and so kept at a due distance from the Israelites whilst they passed over.
Right against Jericho; here God carried them over, because this part was,
1. The strongest, as having in its neighbourhood an eminent city, a potent king, and a stout and warlike people.
2. The most pleasant and fruitful, and therefore more convenient both for the refreshment of the Israelites after their long and tedious marches, and for their encouragement to their present expedition.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. the waters which came down fromabovethat is, the Sea of Galilee
stood and rose up upon aheap“in a heap,” a firm, compact barrier (Exo 15:8;Psa 78:13);
very farhigh up thestream;
from the city Adam, that isbeside Zaretannear mount Sartabeh, in the northern part of theGhor (1Ki 7:46); that is, adistance of thirty miles from the Israelitish encampment; and
those that came down towardthe sea of the desertthe Dead Seawere cut off (Psa 114:2;Psa 114:3). The river was thusdried up as far as the eye could reach. This was a stupendousmiracle; Jordan takes its name, “the Descender,” from theforce of its current, which, after passing the Sea of Galilee,becomes greatly increased as it plunges through twenty-seven”horrible rapids and cascades,” besides a great many lesserthrough a fall of a thousand feet, averaging from four to five milesan hour [LYNCH]. Whenswollen “in time of harvest,” it flows with a vastlyaccelerated current.
the people passed over rightagainst JerichoThe exact spot is unknown; but it cannot bethat fixed by Greek traditionthe pilgrims’ bathing-placebothbecause it is too much to the north, and the eastern banks are theresheer precipices ten or fifteen feet high.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
That the waters which came down from above,…. Above where the priests’ feet rested, and which came down from Mount Lebanon, and the fountains of Jordan northward:
stood [and] rose up upon an heap; they stopped their current, and as the water came down they rose up on high, and made one vast heap of waters:
very far from the city of Adam, that is, beside Zaretan; the Cetib, or textual reading, is, “in Adam the city”; we follow the marginal reading, “from Adam”: both readings, as is usually, if not always the case, are to be received; and the meaning is, that this heap of waters, though the river was at a considerable distance from Adam; yet through the overflow of it, it reached to, and was “in Adam”: this city was in Perea, on the other side Jordan, that side on which the Israelites were before their passage; and Zaretan, which is supposed to be the same with Zartanah, and Zarthan, 1Ki 4:12, was on this side, in the tribe of Manasseh; and the sense is, not that Adam was on the side of Zaretan, or near it, for it was on the other side of the river; and according to the Talmudists a was twelve miles from it; but the construction is with the word “heap”, “which [heap] was on the side of Zaretan”; it was there where the waters were heaped up; it seems as if they reached on the one side to Adam, and on the other side to Zaretan:
and those that came down towards the sea of the plain, [even] the salt sea, failed, [and] were cut off; those waters, which were below where the priests’ feet rested, ran down into the lake Asphaltites, where Sodom and Gomorrah formerly stood, the sea of the plain, or vale of Siddim, Ge 14:3; sometimes called the dead sea, and here the salt sea, its water being exceeding salt; so, Mr. Maundrell, the above mentioned traveller b testifies on his own knowledge;
“the water of the lake (the lake Asphaltites, or dead sea, says he) was very limpid, and salt to the highest degree; and not only salt, but also extreme bitter and nauseous;”
so that these waters running down thither, and those above stopped, made a dry channel for sixteen or eighteen miles: and the people passed over right against Jericho; which was the city Joshua had in view to attack first, and had sent spies thither to get intelligence of it, and the disposition of the people in it: [See comments on Jos 2:1].
a T. Hieros. Sotah, fol. 21. 4. b Maundrell, ut supra, (Journel from Aleppo to Jerusalem) p. 84. Ed. 7.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(16) Very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan.The written text is in Adam, but the Masorites read it from Adam. The reading makes no difference to the literal fact. The two prepositions, in and from, express the same thought. The heap of water stood up as it were in Adam. From Adam to the place where Israel crossed, the river-bed was drythe heap was as far away as Adam, but as it was not actually in the city, the word in was most likely altered to from. The more difficult reading, in, may very possibly be the best. For Zaretan see 1Ki. 4:12; 1Ki. 7:46. Adam, as the name of a city, does not occur elsewhere. The meaning of the fact has been well pointed out by Bishop Wordsworth on this place. Zaretan was beneath Jezreel, but has not been identified. Adam has been thought to be at the ford Damieh, thirty miles away.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. The city Adam, that is beside Zaretan It is impossible to locate these cities; no traces of them remain. The latter city is elsewhere more correctly spelled Zarthan. There is in the Hebrew a marginal reading which is generally preferred by the critics: “The waters stood and rose up upon one heap very far off by Adam, the city that is by the side of Zarthan.”
In accordance with this reading many commentators suppose that the entire channel of the Jordan was dry for many miles above the place of crossing, and that the waters were rolled back and piled up in a place many miles distant towards, or near, the Sea of Tiberias. The following is Stanley’s graphic description: “On the broken edge of the swollen stream the band of priests stood, with the ark on their shoulders. Suddenly the full bed of the Jordan was dried before them. High up the river, far, far away, in Adam, (that is, at a distance of thirty miles from the encampment,) the waters stood which ‘descended’ from the heights above; stood, and rose up as if gathered into a waterskin, as if in a barrier or heap, as if congealed, (LXX;) and those that descended toward the Sea of the Desert, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off. Thus the scene presented is of the ‘descending stream,’ (Jordan, etymologically, means the Descender,) not parted asunder, as we generally fancy, but, as the Psalm expresses it, ( Psa 114:3,) ‘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, embedded in the soft bottom; or the shingly pebbles drifted along the course of the channel.” To this theory of the miracle, which is also that of Dr. A. Clarke, we object. We see no reason for heaping up the waters in a far-distant place where there were no Hebrew witnesses.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 16. The waters which came down from above, stood, &c. Instead of continuing their course, being arrested by the divine hand, they accumulated, and formed as it were a mountain, which is the rendering of the Vulgate. Or else, as we may plainly conceive, being obliged to go back towards their source, they rose up in heaps for a vast way backward, very far, as the text expresses it, from the city of Adam, which is beside Zaretan. This city of Adam is not known; and the situation of Zaretan is in dispute.
Perhaps the most probable account that can be given, is, that Zaretan was placed to the west of the Jordan, a little below Bethsan, or Scythopolis, which stood opposite to Succoth; 1Ki 4:12; 1Ki 7:46. Now Succoth lay on the other side of the river, (see Gen 33:17. Jos 13:27.) not far from the lake of Gennezareth; consequently, Adam was on the east side, but more northerly than Succoth. Now, as the Israelites crossed the Jordan, as it is supposed, by the borders of Bethabara, where St. John afterwards baptized, (see on ver. 17.) the waters must have gone back the whole computed distance from Bethabara to Zaretan.
And those that came down toward the sea of the plainfailed That is, the waters which were below the place where the Israelites passed, continued to flow, and lose themselves in the sea of the plain, otherwise called the Salt or Dead Sea; thus leaving dry a great part of the river’s channel. From the place where the waters stopped, down to the Dead Sea, is reckoned sixteen or eighteen miles. Such, therefore, was the breadth of the passage which opened to the Israelites, opposite to, and in the face of the city of Jericho.
See commentary on Jos 3:14
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jos 3:16 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.
Ver. 16. That is beside Zaretan. ] A city in the tribe of Ephraim, 1Ki 4:12 ; 1Ki 7:46 called also Zererath in Jdg 7:22 , and Zereda in 1Ki 11:26 .
Failed, and were cut off.
And the people passed over.
Right over against Jericho.
a Tremell.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Adam. The waters were divided at (or near) the city “Adam”, and they were heaped up at (or near) “Zaretun”, another city far off from “Adam”.
Zaretan in the land of Manasseh. Called Zartanah in 1Ki 4:12. The brazen vessels of the temple were cast there in the plain of Jordan (1Ki 7:46.
sea of the plain: i.e. the Dead Sea.
salt sea. Figure of speech. Polyonymia. App-6.
the People passed over. A way cleft through the sea (Exodus 14), through the river (Joshua 3), and in the future through the air Php 3:14, 1Th 4:17).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
rose up: Jos 3:13, Psa 29:10, Psa 77:19, Psa 114:3, Mat 8:26, Mat 8:27, Mat 14:24-33
Zaretan: 1Ki 4:12, Zartanah, 1Ki 7:46, Zarthan
the salt sea: Jos 15:2, Gen 14:3, Num 34:3, Deu 3:17, The passage through the Red Sea took place in the night, when the Israelites were fleeing from the Egyptians with great trepidation, but they passed Jordan in the day-time, with previous warning, leisurely, directly opposite to Jericho, and with a triumphant defiance of the Canaanites; this passage into the promised land evidently typifying the believer’s passage through death to heaven.
Reciprocal: Exo 14:29 – a wall Num 22:1 – on this side Deu 9:1 – to pass Jos 4:10 – stood in the midst Jos 12:3 – the sea Jos 16:7 – Jericho Jos 18:12 – Jericho Jos 18:19 – the salt Jdg 6:33 – went over 2Ch 20:2 – beyond the sea Psa 33:7 – heap Psa 66:6 – they Psa 77:16 – General Psa 78:13 – made Psa 126:4 – as the streams Isa 50:2 – I dry Isa 63:12 – dividing Eze 47:8 – desert Hab 3:8 – the Lord Hab 3:10 – the overflowing
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jos 3:16. Adam The city of Adam, being more obscure, is described by its nearness to a more known place, then eminent, but now unknown. The meaning is, that the waters were stopped in their course at that place, and so kept at a distance from the Israelites while they passed over. Against Jericho Here God carried them over, because this part was, 1st, The strongest, as having in its neighbourhood an eminent city, a potent king, and a stout and warlike people. 2d, The most pleasant and fruitful, and therefore more convenient both for the refreshment of the Israelites after their long and tedious marches, and for their encouragement.