Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Hebrews cross the miraculously divided Jordan on dry foot, with the Ark of the Covenant going before them as guide.
Vulgate Text: Joshua 3:1-17
1. Therefore Joshua, rising in the night, moved the camp; and departing from Setim, he and all the children of Israel came to the Jordan, and they remained there three days. 2. When these had elapsed, heralds passed through the midst of the camp, 3. and began to proclaim: When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests of the Levitical line carrying it, you also arise and follow those going before: 4. and let there be between you and the Ark a space of two thousand cubits, so that you may be able to see from afar and know by what way you should enter: for you have not passed this way before; and take care not to approach the Ark. 5. And Joshua said to the people: Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. 6. And he said to the priests: Take up the Ark of the Covenant and go before the people. And they, fulfilling his commands, took it up and walked before them. 7. And the Lord said to Joshua: This day I will begin to exalt you before all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I am also with you. 8. But you, command the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant, and say to them: When you have entered the edge of the water of the Jordan, stand still in it. 9. And Joshua said to the children of Israel: Come here, and hear the word of the Lord your God. 10. And again: By this, he said, you shall know that the living Lord God is in the midst of you, and that He will destroy before you the Canaanite and the Hittite, the Hivite and the Perizzite, the Girgashite also and the Jebusite, and the Amorite. 11. Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the God of all the earth shall go before you through the Jordan. 12. Prepare twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13. And when the priests who carry the Ark of the Lord God of the whole earth shall set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters that are below shall flow down and fail: but those that come from above shall stand together in one mass. 14. Therefore the people went out from their tents to cross the Jordan; and the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant went before them. 15. And when they entered the Jordan, and their feet were dipped in the edge of the water (now the Jordan had filled the banks of its channel at harvest time), 16. the waters that came down stood in one place, and swelling up like a mountain appeared far off from the city called Adom, as far as the place of Sarthan; but those that were below descended into the Sea of the Desert (which is now called the Dead Sea), until they entirely failed. 17. But the people marched toward Jericho; and the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood upon dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, girded, and all the people passed through the dry channel.
Verse 1: Joshua rising in the night moved the camp
1. Therefore Joshua, rising in the night, moved the camp — namely, at its end, that is, at the morning twilight; for in Hebrew it says, he rose early in the morning. So the Septuagint; or, as the Chaldean has it, at dawn. Our translator also takes "night" in this sense in chapter 6, verse 12. For it is not the dark of night, but the light-bearing dawn that is suitable for moving camps and military expeditions. Let the prince and commander of war learn here not to snore until broad daylight, but to rise before the sun at dawn, according to that saying of Homer:
"It is not fitting for a man of counsel to sleep the whole night through."
The Hebrews hold that this night or dawn was on the ninth day of Nisan, or March. For they assert that Moses died on the seventh day of February, and on the seventh of the following March, namely toward the end of the thirty days of mourning, the Lord addressed Joshua, and on the same day the proclamation was made to the people about preparing food; and on the fifth day of the same month the spies were sent, and on the eighth day they returned; and on the ninth day the children of Israel set out from Setim and came to the bank of the Jordan, and on the tenth day they crossed the Jordan.
But the order is more fitting if we say that Moses died around the third day of February; then after thirty days of mourning, around the third of March, God stirred up Joshua to invade Canaan. Therefore Joshua on the same day sent the spies, who after three days, on the sixth of March, returning toward evening to Joshua, encouraged him to attack the terrified Canaanites. Joshua therefore on the next day in the morning of the seventh day moved camp to the Jordan, and proclaimed through a herald that all should prepare themselves for the crossing of the Jordan, to take place after three days. They prepared themselves therefore for three days, namely the seventh, eighth, and ninth, and on the tenth day they crossed the Jordan, as I said in chapter 1, verse 11.
And they remained there three days — the already mentioned days, preparing themselves for the crossing. These words are not in the Hebrew, Septuagint, or Chaldean in this verse, but in the following one, from which our translator moved them here for the sake of clarity.
Verse 2: When these had elapsed
2. When these had elapsed — that is, as they were coming to their end, namely toward the evening of the ninth day.
Verse 3: When you see the Ark of the Covenant
3. When you see the Ark of the Covenant — in which God dwelt above the mercy-seat and the Cherubim, and from there gave oracles, Exodus 25:10. God therefore, dwelling here in the Ark, went before the camp, and divided the Jordan, and led the people through it on dry foot.
And the priests of the Levitical line (descended from Levi the patriarch) carrying it. — For although during the wandering through the desert the Levites, namely the Kohathites, carried the Ark, as God had commanded in Numbers 4:15, nevertheless in grave and miraculous matters the priests carried it, as here for the dividing of the Jordan, and in chapter 6 for overthrowing the walls of Jericho, and for bringing it with majesty into the magnificent temple of Solomon recently built by him, 3 Kings 8. Therefore Sigonius, in Book 5 of The Hebrew Commonwealth, chapter 4, wrongly understands Levites here by "priests of the Levitical line." The Chaldean also translates less correctly, "Priests and Levites."
You also arise, and follow those going before. — The Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint have: you shall go after it, namely the Ark; but the Ark was carried by the priests; therefore by following them they likewise followed the Ark.
Verse 4: Let there be a space of two thousand cubits
4. And let there be between you and the Ark a space of two thousand cubits — or three thousand feet, which make five stadia, that is, half an Italian mile, plus one hundred and twenty-five paces, which is a Sabbath day's journey, says Josephus, Book 20 of the Antiquities, chapter 6; for a stadium is one-eighth of a mile: and a mile consists of a thousand paces; therefore five stadia contain six hundred and twenty-five paces.
One may ask, why did God command so great a distance between the Ark and the people? I answer: first, for the sake of religion and reverence; for the Ark represented God, indeed it carried Him, as it were, who was opening the way into the promised land for the Hebrews, and going before them as a guide. Second, so that all might more conveniently behold the Ark and the miracle of the Jordan divided through it, from a distance, glorifying God with admiration, exultation, and thanksgiving — seeing how the waters fled from the priestly feet, the channel dried up, and a road was laid through the midst of the waves, says Serarius; and, as St. Augustine says in Question 3, lest if so great a throng of people followed close behind the Ark, they would not all see it going before them, nor know which way to follow. Joshua assigns both these reasons when he immediately adds: "That you may be able to see from afar, and know by what way you should enter, etc. And take care not to approach the Ark." From this command and action it is to be understood that the pillar of cloud, which used to give the signal for moving camp and to go before them by its movement, showing the way, had already vanished and no longer appeared: otherwise it would have gone before the camp in its customary manner here, not the Ark. So St. Augustine, Abulensis, Hugo, Lyranus, Cajetan, Arias, Dionysius, and others. Mystically, under the leadership of Joshua, that is, of Jesus Christ, there is no cloud, no shadowy darkness, but openly the truth, which the Ark of the Covenant, that is, the new law, brought.
Masius adds other reasons, namely that the channel of the Jordan was two thousand cubits wide, so that the Ark would emerge from the channel on the far bank while the Jews were entering on the near bank. But the geographers of the Holy Land assert that the Jordan contains only about thirty cubits in width.
Again, to signify that two thousand years would elapse from this crossing of the Jordan until the birth of Christ; but they err in the calculation: for only 1,456 years elapsed, as is clear from the Chronological Table which I prefixed to Genesis.
Furthermore, Rabbi Solomon holds that there were two arks here, namely the Ark of the Covenant and an ark containing the bones of Joseph, because the Hebrew has benau in the plural; but he errs, both because in Hebrew the reading with a different pointing is beno, in the singular, meaning "between it," namely the Ark, as our translator, the Septuagint, and the Chaldean read it; and also because even if you read benau, that is indeed a plural noun suffix, but signifying a singular thing; otherwise one would have to say benchem, meaning "between them," namely the arks, as the Hebrews know. Mystically, the Ark signifies the humanity of Christ, from whose excellence and perfection we sinners are at the farthest distance.
Verse 5: Sanctify yourselves
5. And Joshua said to the people: Sanctify yourselves — by washing garments and by abstinence, meaning: By washing your garments and abstaining from your wives, purify yourselves, and religiously prepare yourselves for a crossing of the Jordan so admirable and divine. For this sanctification, or bodily purification, was proper to that rude age and ancient people, and was a type of the spiritual purification through contrition and penance that was to be introduced by Christ. Hence the same purification was commanded to the Hebrews when God was about to give them the law on Sinai, Exodus 19:10, and when He was about to overthrow the walls of Jericho, here chapter 6, verse 13, and when David was to be chosen king by Samuel, 1 Kings 16:5, and elsewhere. Interiorly, however, "sanctify yourselves" means by stirring up firm faith and hope of obtaining from God what He Himself had promised. Hence He adds: "For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders."
Learn here that continence and chastity are called holiness, because they purify the soul and body. Hence the Apostle says, 1 Thessalonians 4:4: "That you abstain from fornication, that every one of you know how to possess his vessel in sanctification." And in 1 Corinthians 7, he says of the virgin: "That she may be holy both in body and in spirit."
For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders — namely, He will divide, dry up, halt, and raise the Jordan to bring you across. Joshua speaks, just as Moses did, by the inspiration and command of God, not as a prince but as a Prophet, and as such, authorized by God, he commands the priests in sacred matters in the following verse, namely that they carry the Ark with such a rite, which as a mere prince he could not lawfully have done. For, as St. Ambrose teaches in Letter 13 to his sister Marcellina, to the Emperor is committed the care of the walls, to the Bishop the care of sacred things by God. But hear him thundering nobly against the Emperor Valentinian, who was demanding a church for the Arians: "Do not burden yourself, Emperor, by thinking that you have any imperial right over things that are divine. Do not exalt yourself, but if you wish to rule longer, be subject to God. It is written: Render to God what is God's, and to Caesar what is Caesar's. To the Emperor belong the palaces, to the priest the Church. The right over public walls has been committed to you, not over sacred things."
Verse 8: Stand in the Jordan
8. When you have entered the edge of the water of the Jordan, stand in it. — For "edge" the Hebrew has katse, that is, the end, extremity, by which Masius understands the far bank, meaning: When you have crossed the Jordan, stop at its extremity near the opposite bank, until the people cross, and the elders take stones from the Jordan and set them up as a memorial of this crossing. Hence Pagninus also translates: when you come to the end of the water of the Jordan, in the Jordan you shall stand.
Serarius, however, takes it as the near bank (for this is what kets signifies, verse 12), meaning: As soon as you touch the waters of the Jordan, stop there, until the Jordan is divided, the water gradually flows away, and leaves the channel dry, through which you may cross to the opposite bank, as is said in verse 13.
I walk a middle path between the two, and with Serarius I accept the near bank, but in such a way that the priests are commanded to stand not on the bank but in the middle of the Jordan. For it is expressly stated that the priests stood not on the bank but in the middle of the Jordan, in the last verse and in chapter 4, verse 10. For the Hebrew katse properly signifies a section and a part cut off from the whole; for this is already the end and extremity of the whole, and for this reason our translator and the Septuagint always translate katse here as "part": for the root katsa means to cut off, to sever, to truncate, to cut away the extremities. The sense therefore is: When you come to the katse, that is, to the section of the Jordan, where the Jordan, already cut, ends, and on each side is terminated by its now-cut extremity, enter this section of it, or the part already cut, and stand still in its midst, both so that the people may cross confidently, seeing the Ark and the priests standing fearlessly in the middle of the Jordan already split and dry, and not fear the return and rushing back of the waters into their channel after the Ark's crossing; and also so that twelve stones may be set up there, and twelve others taken up to be set in Gilgal, as a perpetual memorial of this miraculous crossing. Hence in Hebrew literally it reads: When you come to the section of the Jordan, in the Jordan (in the middle) stand still. Our Serarius gives the reason: It was fitting, he says, that the Ark should stand in the place where the danger was greatest, so that the whole people might cross with all the more confidence. For if the Ark had stopped on either bank, the more timid might have feared that, though the Ark was safe, they themselves in the middle of the channel would be overwhelmed by the waters returning to their place.
This then was the order of events: The priests with the Ark preceded the column of the people by two thousand cubits toward the Jordan; and when they reached it and touched the waters with their feet, immediately the waters fled, as if reverencing the Ark, or rather God dwelling in the Ark; for an Angel immediately cut them apart and dried the channel: through it therefore the priests proceeded to the middle of the now-dried channel, and there they stood until the whole people had crossed, and the aforementioned stones were taken up and set as a memorial: for the people crossed safely and securely through the channel, not doubting that they would be free from the waters, since they could see the priests and the Ark free from them.
The division of the Jordan accomplished through Joshua was partly similar to the division of the Red Sea accomplished through Moses, Exodus 14:22, as I showed there; and partly dissimilar and greater. For first, that was done by the rod of Moses stretched over the sea, but this by the Ark carrying God, which was therefore nobler than Moses' rod. Second, there the Angel divided the sea at the beginning of the night, but a wind brought by the same Angel dried the bed of the already-divided sea by blowing the whole night, so that toward dawn the Hebrews might cross it on dry foot: but here the Angel dividing the Jordan immediately dried it, especially because it was small and sandy. Third, there the waters of the sea divided by the Angel, raised as if into mountains, stood still unmoved, because the sea itself does not flow but remains unmoved in the same place: but here the Jordan, continuously flowing, was pouring its waters into the divided Jordan; therefore the Angel had to gather them and raise them into higher mountains, lest they invade and overwhelm the now-dried channel.
Stand in it — fearlessly, because you have God present in the Ark as your protector, so that by this courage you may animate the rest of the people and strengthen them for the crossing: stand therefore, because God stands with you.
Verse 10: The living Lord God is in the midst of you
10. By this you shall know that the living Lord God (in Hebrew el chai, that is, the strong living One) is in the midst of you. — Who, being alive, active, vigorous, giving life to all things, invigorating and strengthening them, by His divine industry, providence, and omnipotence, will carry you across the Jordan and lead you through unharmed, safe, and unscathed.
Verse 13: The waters shall be cut off
13. And when the priests who carry the Ark of the Lord God of the whole earth shall set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters that are below shall flow down and fail (Hebrew: iiccaretun, that is, they shall be cut off, meaning they will so flow down and fail as if they had been utterly cut away). But those that come from above (flowing anew), shall stand in one mass. — In Hebrew: they shall stand in one heap, that is, they will be raised into a new heap, and as it were a mountain, gradually growing and swelling from the ever-fresh influx of water. From this it is clear that the waters of the Jordan, as if repelled by the priests' feet, parted, opening a way for them. But this power was given to the priests by God, on account of the Ark which they carried: for the Ark was the footstool of God sitting upon the Cherubim and the mercy-seat, which was like the lid of the Ark, spread over it like a seat and throne, so that the Ark beneath was like His footstool, according to the text: "Adore His footstool," that is, adore and venerate the Ark, Psalm 97:5. See what I said on Exodus 25:10, where I explained that the Ark allegorically signified the humanity of Christ, and the mercy-seat His divinity; and symbolically the Ark represents the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. For they are like an ark containing God within themselves, and therefore from them flee the waters both of the delights and of the tribulations of this world.
Verse 15: The Jordan had filled its banks at harvest time
15. Now the Jordan had filled the banks of its channel at harvest time. — In Hebrew: at the time of the new fruits. For it was then the tenth day of the first month Nisan, which corresponds partly to March and partly to April, when in Palestine, being a warm region, some crops ripen, especially barley, and so it is clear that harvest time there begins from Nisan, Leviticus 23:10; Exodus 13:4; Deuteronomy 16:1; Joshua 5:11.
It had filled its banks. — The Septuagint: Now the Jordan was being filled along its entire bank.
But because the Hebrew al signifies both "according to" and "above," hence you may secondly translate: And the Jordan was being filled, that is, was overflowing above all its banks, as Masius and Vatablus translate it, and as our translator renders it in 1 Chronicles 22:13, meaning: The Jordan was then at its greatest, and could not be contained in its channel. For the Jordan usually overflows at harvest time, whether because this is the singular nature of that river, or because, as the common opinion holds, the snows on the mountains near the Jordan, melted by the heat of the sun, pour copious water into it. So Abulensis, Masius, Arias. Sirach 24:35 teaches that the same thing happens to the Tigris as well as the Nile.
God chose this time of the Jordan's flooding for this crossing of the Hebrews, so that the benefit would be all the more remarkable, the more admirable the miracle was.
Verse 16: The waters stood in one place
16. The waters that came down stood in one place. — Hebrew: in one heap; Chaldean: in one skin; Septuagint: in one mass or freezing (for the waters stood as if frozen solid like a crystalline mountain), and swelling up like a mountain appeared far off from the city called Adom (so the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Roman editions. Therefore the Complutensian and others wrongly read Edom), as far as Sarthan — that is, from Adom (which extends to Sarthan, reaching and stretching its borders there) as far as Bethabara, where the Hebrews were crossing the Jordan. For in Hebrew it reads "from Adom" or "in Adom" (for some Hebrew texts read beadom, that is "in Adom," and others meadom, that is "from Adom"), a city that is beside, or at the side of, Sarthan. So also the Septuagint in the Royal and Complutensian editions. Hence it is surprising that in the Roman edition Cariathiarim, that is, "city of forests," is read instead of Sarthan; unless you say that Sarthan was also so called because of nearby forests. The sense therefore is: The waters of the Jordan, repelled by the presence of God's Ark, since new waters continually flowed in, so swelled and grew into a mountain, as it were, that the mountain, raised on high from the place of the crossing (which was therefore called Bethabara, that is, "house," meaning "place," of crossing), appeared remote and far off to the inhabitants of those places as far as the obscure city of Adom, or as far as the well-known place of Sarthan (for Sarthan is beside the city of Adom), that is, as far as the Lake of Genesareth, or the Sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias, as Masius here extensively proves from 3 Kings 4:12, where Sarthan is said to be opposite Jezreel, which was near the city of Bethshan or Scythopolis: and the Sea of Galilee bordered on Scythopolis.
There appeared, then, this mountain of waters from Bethabara to Sarthan and the Sea of Galilee, which is a distance of twenty leagues or hours.
Indeed, from the Hebrew the sense here seems to be that these swelling waters of the Jordan not only appeared, but also swelled in a continuous series from Bethabara to Sarthan, meaning: The waters of the Jordan, repelled by the sight of God's Ark, since new waters continually flowed in, and these in turn were soon driven back by the Angel, by this very repulsion they flowed back, and by this backflow they swelled over so great a stretch as extends from Bethabara to Sarthan, namely about twenty leagues, or about as far as it is from the Dead Sea, that is, from Lake Asphaltitis (for Bethabara is near it), to the Sea of Tiberias. Hence the Hebrew and Chaldean read: the waters stood as far as Sarthan: so Masius. Indeed God, the maker of all things, who sets a boundary for the waters, held them here more firmly than any wall of adamant.
Less correctly, Adrichomius here invents another Sarthan near Bethabara, at which the Hebrews supposedly crossed the Jordan, and from which that mountain of Jordan's waters appeared to swell up as far as Adom.
Symbolically, Rupertus holds that this represents the span of time during which the Hebrews were to possess the promised land, namely from the crossing of the Jordan under Joshua at Bethabara, until Adom and Sarthan, that is, until Titus and the Romans, who on account of the slaying of Jesus Christ slaughtered, afflicted, and expelled them: for Adom in Hebrew means the same as "red," and Sarthan means the same as "their tribulation."
Tropologically, the faithful from the crossing of the Jordan, that is, from baptism, must swell, that is, grow in patience and virtue up to Adom, that is, the shedding of blood and martyrdom, and Sarthan, that is, the utmost constriction and tribulation. When therefore you are afflicted, O Christian, take courage and be enlarged; for you have not yet resisted unto Adom, that is, unto blood, as Christ and the Martyrs. Think how much St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, St. Euphemia, St. Febronia, and the other Martyrs suffered, and whatever you suffer will seem little to you.
But those that were below descended into the Sea of the Desert — into Lake Asphaltitis, into which Sodom and the Pentapolis were converted after the heavenly fire —, which is now called the Dead Sea (because it supports no living creature, but all living things cast into it immediately die). — For the Jordan flows directly into this sea, and is absorbed by it and virtually disappears.
Verse 17: The people marched toward Jericho
17. But the people marched toward Jericho — (some wrongly read "toward the Jordan": for the Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint, and Roman editions all have "toward Jericho"). This place, where the Hebrews crossed the Jordan, divided by God, on dry foot, was called in Hebrew Bethabara, that is, "house," meaning "place," of crossing, where St. John the Baptist baptized, and where Christ was baptized by him, John 1:28 (see what was said there): namely, so that in the very place where baptism had first been prefigured by this crossing of the Hebrews, there also it would first be accomplished by John. For St. Augustine teaches in Sermon 106 On Time that the crossing of the Jordan prefigured baptism: for just as Joshua led the Hebrews through the Jordan into the promised land, so Jesus leads His faithful through baptism into heaven. Hence also St. Jerome in his Hebrew Places, letter B, says: "Bethabara, where John baptized unto penance: whence even to this day very many of the brethren, that is, of the number of believers, desiring to be reborn there, are baptized in the life-giving stream," just as St. Basil traveled from Cappadocia to the Jordan and was baptized in it.
Furthermore, Arias, page 265, holds that Bethabara is the same place as Bethbera, of which Judges 7:24 speaks, meaning "house of grain" or "of eating," that is, a fertile place on account of the nearness of the Jordan's waters and their irrigation; hence near it the Hebrews ate the fruits of the land when the manna ceased, Joshua 5:11-12.
And the priests, who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, stood upon dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, girded — until the whole people crossed safely and without fear, so that it might be shown to the people that this miracle of the crossing was done by the power of God, who was the Lord and Prince of the covenant (of the two tablets of the Decalogue) contained in the Ark, whose covenant the people enjoyed, using not only a passable but an entirely dry channel of the Jordan. This is what the Psalmist sings in Psalm 114:7: "What ails you, O sea, that you fled? And you, O Jordan, that you turned backward? At the presence of the Lord (dwelling above the Ark) the earth was moved, at the presence of the God of Jacob."
Morally, Origen in Homily 4 says: "By the ministry of the priests the people is led to the promised land. And who today among the priests is so great and so worthy as to deserve to be enrolled in that order? For if there be anyone such, the streams of the Jordan will yield to him, and the very elements will stand in awe; part of the river's waters will leap backward, and part will flee in rapid course into the salt sea." And below: "Blessed are they who approach the Ark, that is, God; but remember what is written: Those who draw near to Me, draw near to the fire that illumines the pious and burns the impious."
Girded. — In Hebrew hachen, that is, making firm, namely themselves in the same footstep, that is, firmly, with fixed foot. In Chaldean: fixedly, or rightly, and thus as they had begun. So Arias; the Zurich Bible: purposely; the Septuagint, Aquila, and Symmachus: prepared, for the crossing; Masius: preparing, namely the crossing for the people. For although hachen is a hiphil infinitive verb, yet among the Hebrews these verbs are often taken as adverbs, as is clear from Hosea 5:2 and 9:9; Jonah 4:4; Isaiah 31:6 in the Hebrew.
And all the people passed through the dry channel. — In Hebrew: and all Israel passed through on dry ground, until the whole people had finished crossing the Jordan. So also the Septuagint, Chaldean, Vatablus, Masius, and others.