Joshua 3:5

5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”

Joshua 3:5 in Other Translations

KJV
5 And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.
ESV
5 Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you."
NLT
5 Then Joshua told the people, “Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do great wonders among you.”
MSG
5 Then Joshua addressed the people: "Sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow God will work miracle-wonders among you."
CSB
5 Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, because the Lord will do wonders among you tomorrow."

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 giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.
4 Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between you and the ark; do not go near it.”
5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”
6 Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.
7 And the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.

Cross References 2

  • 1. S Exodus 29:1; S Leviticus 11:44; Exodus 19:10,14; Leviticus 20:7; Joshua 7:13; 1 Samuel 16:5; Joel 2:16
  • 2. Judges 6:13; 1 Chronicles 16:9,24; Psalms 26:7; Psalms 75:1
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