Joshua 3:5

5 Y'hoshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, because tomorrow ADONAI is going to work wonders among you."

Joshua 3:5 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 3:5

And Joshua said unto the people
On the third day; and the thirtieth day of the mourning for Moses, Jarchi says, was the first of the three days, and that being the seventh day of the month, this must be the ninth, as it is most clear the morrow was the tenth:

sanctify yourselves;
in a ceremonial sense, by washing their bodies and their clothes, and abstaining from their wives; and in a moral sense, by acts of religion and devotion, by prayer and meditation, and the exercise of repentance and, good works: it may denote that sanctification is necessary to our passage over Jordan, or through death to the heavenly Canaan, for without holiness no man shall see the Lord:

for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you:
in their sight and presence, and for them, by dividing the waters of Jordan, that they might pass through it as on dry land; this, as Kimchi says, was the tenth of Nisan, as is plain from ( Joshua 4:19 ) .

Joshua 3:5 In-Context

3 and gave the people these orders: "When you see the ark for the covenant of ADONAI your God and the cohanim, who are L'vi'im, carrying it, you are to leave your position and follow it.
4 But keep a distance between yourelves and it of about a thousand yards - don't come any closer, so that you will understand which way to go, because you haven't gone this way before."
5 Y'hoshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, because tomorrow ADONAI is going to work wonders among you."
6 Then Y'hoshua said to the cohanim, "Take the ark for the covenant, and go on ahead of the people." They took the ark for the covenant and went ahead of the people.
7 ADONAI said to Y'hoshua, "Starting today, I will make you great in full view of all Isra'el; so that they will know that just as I was with Moshe, so I will be with you.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.