Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your God giveth you to possess it.
Prepare you victuals. This was the proclamation those officers were charged to make, that the people should lay in a store of what was required for their sustenance х tseedaah (H6720) or tseeydaah (H6720), provision], not manna, which is called poetically by this name, Ps. 77:25 , and which, though it still fell, would not keep, but grain, sheep, and articles of food, procurable as natural produce in the conquered countries (Joshua 9:11; Genesis 42:25; Genesis 45:21; Exodus 12:39; Judges 7:8; Judges 20:10; 1 Samuel 22:10).
For within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan - i:e., the third day, according to Hebrew idiom (Genesis 40:13; Genesis 40:19-20). The import of these words apparently is, that the people would cross the river within the specified time. But the precautionary measure of despatching spies to reconnoitre Jericho shows such a conclusion to be wrong; because it is expressly said (Joshua 2:23-24) that the scouts lay in hiding three days among the mountain fastnesses, returning to the camp on the morning of the fourth day; and that it was not until after their return that Joshua removed from Shittim (Joshua 3:1). Various methods have been proposed for harmonizing the several incidents that transpired previous to the passage of the Jordan. Some writers maintain that the reconnoitring party had been sent a considerable time before, though the fact was not recorded until now; while many others, following Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 5: ch. 1:), are of opinion that the mission of the spies was contemporaneous with the orders issued to the people to prepare for decamping. The explanation which appears the simplest and freest from difficulties (see the note at Joshua 3:2) is, that the statement in Joshua 1:11 refers to the time allotted for the people getting ready, ere the encampment in Abel-shittim was broken up, and they removed to the desert bank of the river, where no victuals could be obtained (Hess, Geschicte Josua, Erstes Buch, 'Zweytes Capitel,' p. 31).