And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people;
And it came to pass ... To understand the scene described, we must imagine the band of priests, with the ark on their shoulders, standing on the depressed edge of the river, while the mass of the people were at a mile's distance. Suddenly the whole bed of the river was dried up-a spectacle the more extraordinary that it took place in the time of harvest, corresponding to our April or May, when 'the Jordan overfloweth all its banks.' The original word х maalee' (H4390)] may be more properly rendered 'fills all its banks;' its channel, snow-fed from Anti-Lebanon, or Hermon, is at its greatest height-brim full: a translation which gives the only true description of the state of Jordan in harvest, as observed by modern travelers (cf. 1 Chronicles 12:15; Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 2: p. 262; Wilson's 'Lands of the Bible,' 2:, p. 18).
The river from Jericho is, in ordinary appearance, about 50 or 50 yards in width. But as seen in harvest, it is twice as broad; and in ancient times, when the hills on the right and left were much more drenched with rain and snow than since the forests have disappeared, the river must, from a greater accession of water, have been broader still than at harvest time in the present day. Unlike other steams which are generally bordered with meadows or cultivated fields, almost to the water's edge, Jordan has at least two banks; after descending the first of which, there appears a spacious and level plain, extending to the breadth of a furlong. It is a dry expanse of sand and gravel, over which one may walk without having the least suspicion, except from the distant ripple of the waves, that any current is near; because the inner bank, which forms the boundary of the river in its natural state, is so completely overspread with thickets of willows, reeds, tamarisks, and other wild shrubs, as keep the river entirely out of view. At the annual season of harvest the volume of water in the Jordan becomes so greatly increased that the whole even of the outermost channel is covered.