“ Behold, the Ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth, passes over before you into Jordan.”
Joshua now added to ‘the Ark of the covenant' the phrase ‘the Lord of all the earth'. He was probably remembering the words of Abraham ‘the Judge of all the earth' (Genesis 18:25) and Melchizedek's words to Abraham, ‘God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth (Genesis 14:19) and applying the idea to the present situation. Here He would be revealed as Lord of all the earth, not Judge (although the ideas merged in ancient times). It was as Lord of all the earth, and thus its controller, that He would be able to control the waters of the Jordan. The same phrase occurs in Joshua 3:13, and nowhere else in Joshua, demonstrating its particular applicability to that ‘wonder'.
Comparison can be made with the Baal epic from Ugarit where it was said of Baal, ‘Baal the mighty is alive, the Prince, Lord of the earth, exists.' If the Canaanites could think of Baal as ‘Lord of the earth' how much more could Israel see YHWH as such. The difference was that Baal had died and come back to life in the round of the seasons while YHWH ever lives, as the Living God, but it does evidence that the title ‘Lord of the earth' was contemporary with, and even prior to, Moses and Joshua.