Joshua 3:15 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Which is also noted 1 Chronicles 12:15 /APC Sir 24:26, and by Aristoeas in the History of the LXX. Interpreters. This is meant not of the wheat harvest, but of the barley harvest, (which was before it, Ruth 1:22 2 Samuel 21:9) as is manifest from their keeping of the passover at their first entrance, Joshua 5:10, which feast was kept on the fourteenth day of their first month, when they were to bring a sheaf of their first-fruits, Leviticus 23:10 Deuteronomy 16:9,10, which were of barley, as Josephus affirms, and is evident from the thing itself. So that this harvest in those hot countries fell very early in the spring, when rivers used to swell most, partly because of the rains which have fallen all the winter, and partly because of the snows, which then melt into water and come into the rivers; for which reasons the same overflowing of water which is here ascribed to Jordan, is by other authors ascribed to Euphrates, and Tigris, and the Rhine, and Maine, &c. And this time God chose for this work, partly that the miracle might be more glorious in itself, more obliging to the Israelites, and more amazing and terrible to the Canaanites; and partly that the Israelites might be entertained at their first entrance with more plentiful and comfortable provisions.