Joshua 3:17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Stood firm That is, in one and the same place and posture; their feet were neither moved by any waters flowing in upon them, nor sunk into any mire, which one might think was at the bottom of the river. And this may be opposed to their standing in the brink of the water when they came to it, as commanded, (Joshua 3:8,) which was but for a while, till the waters were divided and gone away; and then they were to go farther, even into the midst of Jordan, where they were to stand constantly and fixedly, as the Hebrew word signifies, until all were passed over. The midst of Jordan In the middle and deepest part of the river. This manifests how firmly the priests believed the word of the Lord, and confided in his power, otherwise they would not have dared to stand so long in the midst of the channel of a river, whose rapid waters stood suspended above them in mountainous heaps, ready every moment to overwhelm them unless miraculously withheld by the power of God.