Joshua 1:2
| Moses my servant is dead: arise, and pass over this Jordan, thou and thy people with thee, into the land which I will give to the children of Israel.
| Jordan, a river well known, which rises in Antilibanus, not from Panion, but from the lake Phiala, as Herod the Tetrarch discovered by throwing some straw into the latter, which passed by a subterraneous passage into Panion. Thence it proceeds to the Semonite lake and to Daphne, where it begins to be called the Great Jordan. (Josephus, Jewish Wars 3:33.) Having traversed the land of Palestine in a southern direction, it loses itself in the lake of Sodom. (Calmet) --- It is a very rapid river, and hence its appellation from irod, or jord, descendit, is very probably derived. (Haydock) --- The Arabs call it Zacchar, "overflowing," because the snows and rains cause it formerly to overflow about Easter. (Universal History) --- When Maundrell travelled through this country, the stream was too rapid for a person to swim against it. (Parkhurst) --- Hence the miracle of the Hebrews passing through the Jordan on dry land, when its waters were the most copious and violent, would be the more observable. (Haydock)
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