SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:16
Las aguas que descendían de arriba, se pararon como en un montón bien lejos de la ciudad de Adam, que está al lado de Saretán; y las que descendían al mar de los llanos, al mar Salado, se acabaron y fueron partidas; y el pueblo pasó en derecho de Jericó.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Joshua 3:16
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 1 Kings iv. 12 we learn that Zartanah was below Jezreel near Bethshean, or Scythopolis, and not far from Succoth, 1 Kings vii. 46. And it appears from Gen. xxxiii. 17, chap. xiii. 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, John i. 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.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 16. That the waters which came down from above , etc.] 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, ( 1 Kings 4:12 7:46), 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 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, ( Genesis 14:3); sometimes called the dead sea, and here the salt sea, its water being exceeding salt; so, Mr. Maundrell, the above mentioned traveller 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 Gill on “ Joshua 2:1”).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 14-17 - Jordan overflowed all its banks. This magnified the power of God, an his kindness to Israel. Although those who oppose the salvation of God's people have all advantages, yet God can and will conquer. Thi passage over Jordan, as an entrance to Canaan, after their long, wear wanderings in the wilderness, shadowed out the believer's passag through death to heaven, after he has finished his wanderings in thi sinful world. Jesus, typified by the ark, hath gone before, and he crossed the river when it most flooded the country around. Let u treasure up experiences of His faithful and tender care, that they ma help our faith and hope in the last conflict __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
ויעמדו 5975 המים 4325 הירדים 3381 מלמעלה 4605 קמו 6965 נד 5067 אחד 259 הרחק 7368 מאד 3966 באדם 121 העיר 5892 אשׁר 834 מצד 6654 צרתן 6891 והירדים 3381 על 5921 ים 3220 הערבה 6160 ים 3220 המלח 4417 תמו 8552 נכרתו 3772 והעם 5971 עברו 5674 נגד 5048 יריחו׃ 3405
