Joshua 3:13

13 When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark of Yahweh, Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off {upstream}, and they will stand [still in] one heap.

Joshua 3:13 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 3:13

And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet
of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord
Which they were bid to take up and carry, ( Joshua 3:6 ) ;

the Lord of all the earth;
this shows that not the ark, but the Lord, is called "the Lord of all the earth", (See Gill on Joshua 3:11):

shall rest in the waters of Jordan;
the meaning is, as soon as their feet should touch them, or they should set their feet in them, when they came to the brink of them:

[that] the waters of Jordan shall be cut off [from] the waters that
come down from above;
from above the place where the priests came, and the children of Israel after passed over:

and they shall stand upon an heap;
or one heap; stop and rise up high, as if piled up one upon another, and stand unmoved. This had been made known to Joshua by divine revelation, and is what he hints at, ( Joshua 3:5 ) ; and now plainly speaks out, and foretells before it came to pass; and which must serve to magnify Joshua, as in ( Joshua 3:7 ) ; and give him great credit and honour among the people.

Joshua 3:13 In-Context

11 Look! The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth [is about to] cross [over] ahead of you into the Jordan.
12 So then, take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, {one from each tribe}.
13 When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark of Yahweh, Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off {upstream}, and they will stand [still in] one heap.
14 And it happened, when the people set out from their tents to cross [over] the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant were {ahead of the people}.
15 When those carrying the ark came up to the Jordan, and the priests carrying the ark dipped their feet in the edge of the water (the Jordan was flowing over its banks during all the days of harvest),

Footnotes 2

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.