Why are the people told to stay two thousand cubits behind the ark?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The stated purpose is to see it from afar and know which way to go, because they have not gone that way before. They are also told to take care not to come near the ark.

Chapter breakdown

Josue rises before daylight, moves the camp, and leaves Setim with all Israel’s children for the Jordan. They stay there three days. Afterward heralds go through the camp and proclaim that when the people see the Lord’s covenant ark carried by priests of Levi’s race, they must rise and follow. They must leave two thousand cubits between themselves and the ark, to see it from afar and know their way, since they have not gone that way before. They must take care not to come near it.

Josue tells the people to be sanctified because the Lord will do wonders among them tomorrow. He commands the priests to take up the covenant ark and go before the people; they obey, take it up, and walk ahead. The Lord tells Josue that this day he will begin to exalt him before Israel so they may know he is with Josue as he was with Moses. Josue must command the ark-carrying priests to stand in the Jordan when they have entered part of its water.

Josue calls Israel’s children to hear their God’s word. By this they will know the living Lord is among them and will destroy before their sight the Chanaanite, Hethite, Hevite, Pherezite, Gergesite, Jebusite, and Amorrhite. The ark of the Lord of all the earth will go before them into the Jordan. They must prepare twelve men, one from each tribe. When the priests carrying the ark set their feet’s soles in the Jordan, the waters below will run down and go away, while those coming from above will stand together in a heap.

The people leave their tents to cross the Jordan, with the ark-carrying priests going ahead. When the priests enter and their feet dip in part of the water, the Jordan has filled its channel’s banks because it is harvest time. The waters descending from above stand in one place, swelling like a mountain and seen from afar, from the city called Adom to Sarthan’s place. The waters below run down into the sea of the wilderness, now called the Dead Sea, until they wholly fail. The people march opposite Jericho. The priests carrying the Lord’s covenant ark stand girded on dry ground in the Jordan’s midst, and all the people cross through the dried channel.

The story inside

The heralds give a clear order for following the ark and an explicit reason for the distance: the people need to see their unfamiliar way. Josue gives sanctification and priestly commands; the priests actually take up the ark and go ahead. The Lord states why he will begin exalting Josue, while Josue announces the sign, names all seven peoples and directs preparation of twelve men. He describes the upper and lower waters before the crossing. When the priests’ feet dip into the Jordan at harvest time, the upper water stands like a mountain and the lower water drains to the Dead Sea. The priests stand on dry ground while all the people cross. This chapter does not describe a later return of the flow or say the channel remains dry only for as long as the priests stay there.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The distance has a stated practical purpose. Two thousand cubits allow the people to see the ark from afar and know an unfamiliar route. The warning against approaching remains alongside that explanation.
2
The announcement keeps its full scope. Josue names the seven peoples to be destroyed and calls for twelve men, one from each tribe. The chapter gives no further assignment for those men here.
3
The crossing account distinguishes the waters. The upper waters stand and swell like a mountain from Adom to Sarthan; the lower waters run into the sea of the wilderness, also called the Dead Sea, until they fail. All the people cross while the priests stand in the dry channel.

Test your recall

Why does the heralds’ order require a two-thousand-cubit space between the people and the ark?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 22584–22602
Josue Chapter 3 The river Jordan is miraculously dried up for the passage of the children of Israel. 3:1. And Josue rose before daylight, and removed the camp: and they departed from Setim, and came to the Jordan: he, and all the children of Israel, and they abode there for three days. 3:2. After which, the heralds went through the midst of the camp, 3:3. And began to proclaim: When you shall see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests of the race of Levi carrying it, rise you up also, and follow them as they go before: 3:4. And let there be between you and the ark the space of two thousand cubits: that you may see it afar off, and know which way you must go: for you have not gone this way before: and take care you come not near the ark.
Lines 22604–22617
3:5. And Josue said to the people: Be ye sanctified: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. 3:6. And he said to the priests: Take up the ark of the covenant, and go before the people. And they obeyed his commands, and took it up, and walked before them. 3:7. And the Lord said to Josue: This day will I begin to exalt thee before Israel: that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I am with thee also. 3:8. And do thou command the priests, that carry the ark of the covenant, and say to them: When you shall have entered into part of the water of the Jordan, stand in it.
Lines 22619–22636
3:9. And Josue said to the children of Israel: Come hither, and hear the word of the Lord your God. 3:10. And again he said: By this you shall know, that the Lord, the living God, is in the midst of you, and that he shall destroy, before your sight, the Chanaanite and the Hethite, the Hevite and the Pherezite, the Gergesite also, and the Jebusite, and the Amorrhite. 3:11. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth shall go before you into the Jordan. 3:12. Prepare ye twelve men of the tribes of Israel, one of every tribe. 3:13. And when the priests, that carry the ark of the Lord the God of the whole earth, shall set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters that are beneath shall run down and go off: and those that come from above, shall stand together upon a heap.
Lines 22638–22657
3:14. So the people went out of their tents, to pass over the Jordan: and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant, went on before them. 3:15. And as soon as they came into the Jordan, and their feet were dipped in part of the water, (now the Jordan, it being harvest time, had filled the banks of its channel,) 3:16. The waters that came down from above stood in one place, and swelling up like a mountain, were seen afar off, from the city that is called Adom, to the place of Sarthan: but those that were beneath, ran down into the sea of the wilderness, (which now is called the Dead Sea) until they wholly failed. 3:17. And the people marched over against Jericho: and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood girded upon the dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all the people passed over, through the channel that was dried up.