Across the Jordan
Conquest & Judges · Reviewed · BSB
Content revision: 2170faf97b1efeec · Editorial review: 2026-09-23
Date: c. 1406 BC · First month, day 10 · Under Joshua. Dated from 1 Kings 6:1, which places the Exodus 480 years before Solomon began the temple (c. 966 BC). Many scholars instead date the Exodus to about 1260 BC.
The priests carrying the ark stand in the Jordan as Israel crosses on dry ground. Twelve stones carried from the river are set up at Gilgal as a memorial for future generations.
Joshua 3:16 places the crossing opposite Jericho, while naming Adam upstream where the waters stand. Joshua 4:19 dates emergence from the river to the tenth day of the first month.
Primary Scripture
3:1 Early the next morning Joshua got up and left Shittim with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.
3:2 After three days the officers went through the camp
3:3 and commanded the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, you are to set out from your positions and follow it.
3:4 But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between yourselves and the ark. Do not go near it, so that you can see the way to go, since you have never traveled this way before.”
3:5 Then Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”
3:6 And he said to the priests, “Take the ark of the covenant and go on ahead of the people.” So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of them.
3:7 Now the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you just as I was with Moses.
3:8 Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the waters, stand in the Jordan.’”
3:9 So Joshua told the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.”
3:10 He continued, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that He will surely drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.
3:11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go ahead of you into the Jordan.
3:12 Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.
3:13 When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”
3:14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them.
3:15 Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,
3:16 the flowing water stood still. It backed up as far upstream as Adam, a city in the area of Zarethan, while the water flowing toward the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
3:17 The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over the dry ground, until the entire nation had crossed the Jordan.
4:1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua,
4:2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,
4:3 and command them: ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests were standing, carry them with you, and set them down in the place where you spend the night.’”
4:4 So Joshua summoned the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe,
4:5 and said to them, “Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel,
4:6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’
4:7 you are to tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.”
4:8 Thus the Israelites did as Joshua had commanded them. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each tribe of Israel, just as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them to the camp, where they set them down.
4:9 Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood. And the stones are there to this day.
4:10 Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until the people had completed everything the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell them, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried across,
4:11 and after everyone had finished crossing, the priests with the ark of the LORD crossed in the sight of the people.
4:12 The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over before the Israelites, armed for battle as Moses had instructed them.
4:13 About 40,000 troops armed for battle crossed over before the LORD into the plains of Jericho.
4:14 On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses.
4:15 Then the LORD said to Joshua,
4:16 “Command the priests who carry the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan.”
4:17 So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up from the Jordan.”
4:18 When the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up out of the Jordan and their feet touched the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their course and overflowed all the banks as before.
4:19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.
4:20 And there at Gilgal Joshua set up the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan.
4:21 Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’
4:22 you are to tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’
4:23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as He did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over.
4:24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, and so that you may always fear the LORD your God.”
Related Scripture
Earlier promise and instruction: Deuteronomy 31 anticipates crossing under Joshua. The crossing and memorial stones are narrated later in Joshua 3–4.
Location evidence
The crossing is shown in the lower Jordan opposite Jericho. Its exact location is not established.
Event map marker: Approximate region; [longitude, latitude] = [35.55, 31.84]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Jordan crossing: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.55, 31.84]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.53,31.8],[35.57,31.89]]; not a measured confidence interval.
Joshua 3:16 · opposite Jericho
Joshua 3:16 · opposite Jericho
For the class
How will the next generation learn the meaning of this crossing?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (src/data/journey.ts)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm