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Places of the Bible

The Jordan

A river crossed three times in Scripture, and every crossing is a change of office.

It is not a large river and the text says why this crossing was hard: Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest. They cross at the worst season on purpose. The arrangement is exact. The priests carrying the ark go first and stop in the middle, the water stands and rises up upon an heap a great way off at the city Adam, and the whole nation passes over on dry ground while the priests stand still.

Where it appearsJoshua 3 to 4 · 2 Kings 2 · Matthew 3

Joshua2 KingsMatthew
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The movements, in the order the text gives them.

The Account of The Jordan

  1. 01

    Joshua 3:14-17

    The priests stood firm on dry ground

    The water stops only when the feet of the priests are dipped in the brim. They stand in the middle until everyone is over.

    The priests get their feet wet before anybody gets a dry road. That order matters. Joshua 3:13 has already placed the promise at the moment their feet rest in the water, and verse 15 carefully records that they do. The parenthesis about harvest prevents a convenient misunderstanding: this is not a nation finding an unusually shallow ford. The Jordan is overflowing its banks.

    The centre of the crossing is not Joshua waving a weapon but the ark of the covenant, carried by priests who stand still while everybody else moves. Dry ground appears twice in verse 17, first beneath the priests and then beneath the people. The passage holds those two positions together until the last person is across. Leadership here is publicly confirmed, but the achievement is not credited to a leader's ingenuity. God had promised to establish Joshua as Moses' successor in 3:7; 4:14 explicitly says that this happened. The river becomes the place where Israel learns that Moses' death did not end the presence that led them.

    Verse by verse

    1. 3:15

      The harvest parenthesis identifies a flood-stage crossing, not an ordinary use of the river's fords.

    2. 3:16

      Right against means directly opposite. Adam is explicitly identified as a city; the verse does not give an exact distance from the crossing.

    3. 3:17

      Passed clean over means completely across. The emphasis falls on the whole people's completion of the crossing.

    Joshua 3:14-17

    King James Version · 4 verses

    3:14And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people;

    3:15And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,)

    3:16That 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.

    3:17And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.

    Joshua 3:14-17: The priests stood firm on dry ground
  2. 02

    Joshua 4:4-7

    What mean ye by these stones

    Twelve men carry twelve stones out for a memorial, and the instruction is about what to say when a child asks, not about the stones.

    A stone on a shoulder is not an abstract teaching aid. Each man has to carry something substantial out of the riverbed, and each stone stands for a tribe. The crossing is over, but Joshua is already arranging for people who were not there to understand it. Memory will need more than eyewitnesses with good intentions.

    The stones are designed to provoke a question, not to answer it by themselves. Verse 6 supplies the children's question; verse 7 supplies the explanation their fathers must give. The monument and the spoken account belong together. Without the explanation, the next generation has inherited a pile of rocks. There is a little practical wisdom in that arrangement: the object catches attention, but the words preserve its meaning.

    The repeated phrase before the ark keeps the explanation from becoming a celebration of twelve unusually strong men. These are not trophies of tribal muscle. The waters stopped before the covenant ark, and the twelve tribes crossed because of that intervention. Even the tribes with land east of the river remain represented in the twelve. The memorial records one people, not merely the people settling on this bank.

    Verse by verse

    1. 4:4

      One man from every tribe makes the monument national. Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh also cross with the others in 4:12.

    2. 4:5

      Upon his shoulder indicates a carried stone, but the passage supplies no dimensions, weight, or carved inscription.

    3. 4:7

      Memorial describes the stones' function. The accompanying answer identifies the LORD's action, rather than assigning power to the stones.

    Joshua 4:4-7

    King James Version · 4 verses

    4:4Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:

    4:5And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:

    4:6That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

    4:7Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

    Joshua 4:4-7: What mean ye by these stones
  3. 03

    Joshua 4:20-24

    That all the people of the earth might know

    They are pitched in Gilgal, and the stated audience is wider than Israel: all the people of the earth, and your own fear of the LORD forever.

    The explanation grows wider while the stones stay in one camp. It begins with children asking their fathers and ends with all the people of the earth. Gilgal is a local place with a deliberately nonlocal message. Israel's passage through the river is meant to make the LORD's power known beyond Israel.

    Joshua also joins two generations without pretending that they experienced the same crossing. The Jordan was dried before the people he now addresses; the Red Sea belongs to the earlier deliverance in which Joshua himself had shared. The comparison is explicit. This is not a resemblance a later commentator has to invent: verse 23 names the sea and gives both events the same divine actor.

    There are two purposes in the final verse, and they should not be flattened into one. The nations are to know the mighty hand of the LORD; Israel is to fear the LORD for ever. Public recognition and enduring reverence are related, but they are not identical. The monument is neither a private family keepsake nor a victory advertisement for Joshua. Its explanation refuses to stop at the riverbank.

    Verse by verse

    1. 4:20

      Pitch here means set up or establish. Joshua is erecting the stones, not throwing them or coating them with pitch.

    2. 4:23

      The comparison with the Red Sea is stated in the passage itself. It is not dependent on a later symbolic interpretation.

    3. 4:24

      The hand of the LORD is an expression of effective power; the verse distinguishes the nations' knowledge from Israel's continuing fear.

    Joshua 4:20-24

    King James Version · 5 verses

    4:20And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.

    4:21And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?

    4:22Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.

    4:23For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over:

    4:24That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.

    Joshua 4:20-24: That all the people of the earth might know
  4. 04

    2 Kings 2:7-14

    Where is the LORD God of Elijah

    The same water parts twice in one chapter, once for the man leaving and once for the man staying, with the same mantle.

    The chariot gets most of the attention, but the verse gives it a different job from the one many pictures assign it. The fiery chariot separates the two men. Elijah goes up by a whirlwind. The Book of Second Kings is precise even at its most extraordinary.

    Elisha's request also deserves more than arithmetic. A double portion is the language of the firstborn's inheritance in Deuteronomy 21:17. Here it naturally fits a successor asking to receive the principal heir's share, especially when Elisha immediately calls Elijah father. Some readers understand an additional request for greater prophetic power, but the wording does not require a count of miracles to settle the succession. Elijah himself cannot hand this gift over as easily as a coat; he calls the request hard and makes its fulfilment depend on what Elisha is allowed to witness.

    The return to the Jordan supplies the public test. The same mantle strikes the same water, but a different man holds it. Elisha invokes the God of Elijah, not Elijah as a departed source of power. In verse 15 the watching prophets identify the result: Elijah's spirit rests on Elisha. The office has changed hands. Its source has not.

    Verse by verse

    1. 2:9

      The Hebrew pi shenayim, double portion, is also used in Deuteronomy 21:17 for the firstborn's share of an inheritance.

    2. 2:11

      The chariot and horses part the men; the whirlwind carries Elijah upward. The text does not say he rides in the chariot.

    3. 2:12

      Rending clothes is an expression of grief. My father also fits the inheritance language of Elisha's request in verse 9.

    4. 2:14

      The question invokes the LORD God of Elijah. Verse 15 treats the divided water as evidence that Elisha has received the prophetic spirit.

    2 Kings 2:7-14

    King James Version · 8 verses

    2:7And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.

    2:8And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.

    2:9And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

    2:10And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.

    2:11And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

    2:12And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.

    2:13He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;

    2:14And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.

  5. 05

    Matthew 3:13-17

    This is my beloved Son

    John objects and is overruled, and the river that opened for an ark carrying a covenant opens a sky instead.

    John has just announced someone whose shoes he is not worthy to carry. Then that person arrives and asks John to baptize him. The objection in verse 14 is not a distraction from the event; it identifies the apparent reversal at its heart. The greater one submits to the ministry of the lesser.

    Jesus does not answer by confessing a sin. Matthew has explicitly mentioned confession among the other people baptized in 3:6, but records none from him. Instead, the explanation is to fulfil all righteousness: this action belongs to carrying out God's will. The verse does not supply a complete theory of how baptism accomplishes that purpose, and the commentary should not pretend it does. What it does show is Jesus knowingly accepting the act John initially resists.

    At the earlier Jordan crossings, the water opened. Here the heavens open. That is a comparison between the passages, not a claim that Matthew describes another dry crossing. The Spirit descends upon Jesus, and the heavenly voice identifies him as the beloved Son. John is not promoting a successor into sonship. Heaven is declaring who the man already standing in the river is.

    Verse by verse

    1. 3:14

      John's objection confirms his recognition of Jesus' superiority; the passage does not portray him as confusing Jesus with an ordinary penitent.

    2. 3:15

      Suffer means permit or allow here. The explanation concerns the fittingness of the action, not suffering inflicted by John.

    3. 3:16

      Like a dove describes the Spirit's descent. Matthew does not call the Spirit an ordinary bird.

    4. 3:17

      Matthew 17:5 repeats the identification beloved Son at the transfiguration, adding the command to hear him.

    Matthew 3:13-17

    King James Version · 5 verses

    3:13Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.

    3:14But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

    3:15And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

    3:16And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

    3:17And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

    Matthew 3:13-17: This is my beloved Son

Why it matters

Twelve stones come out of the riverbed and twelve go into it, and the reason given is entirely about future conversations: when your children ask in time to come what mean ye by these stones, then ye shall answer them. Centuries later Elijah smites the same water with his mantle and crosses over, and Elisha crosses back with the mantle that fell. And the river that once stopped for an ark is where John stands baptizing when the heavens open over a man coming up out of it.

6 songs

The music

Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.

  1. Joshua 3-4

    Stones from the Jordan

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  2. Joshua 3:1-4:24

    The Ark Goes Forth

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  3. Joshua 3:1-4:24

    Twelve Stones from the River

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  4. 2 Kings 1:1-2:18

    A Chariot of Fire

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  5. 2 Kings 2

    The Chariot of Fire

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  6. Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22

    The Beloved Son

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