Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth,.... Some both Jewish and Christian interpreters, because there is a distinguishing accent on the word "covenant", read the words "the ark of the covenant, even the Lord of all the earth"; so in some copies of our English Bible, as if the ark was called the Lord of all the earth, because of his presence and dwelling there; but, as Kimchi observes, either the word "ark" is wanting, or the word "covenant", and may be supplied either thus,"the ark of the covenant, the ark (I say) of the Lord of all the earth;''or thus,"the ark of the covenant, which is the covenant of the Lord of all the earth:''the true meaning is what Abarbinel give…
John Calvin on Joshua 3:1-13
Joshua 3:1-13
1. And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.
1. Surrexit autem Josue summo mane, et profecti sunt e Sittim, venerantque usque ad Jordanem ipse et omnes filii Israel, pernoctaveruntque illic antequam transirent.
2. And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host;
2. Et fuit a fine trium dierum, ut praefecti transirent per medium castrorum.
3. And they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place, and g…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Joshua 3:11-13
After this inspiriting promise, Joshua informed the people what the Lord intended to do first: "Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth will go before you into Jordan." כּל־הארץ 'adown is a genitive dependent upon הברית ארון, the strict subordination of the construct state being loosened in this case by the article before the nomen regens. The punctuators have therefore separated it from the latter by sakeph-katon, without thereby explaining it as in opposition or giving any support to the mistaken exposition of Buxtorff and Drusius, that "the ark of the covenant is called the ruler of the whole earth." The description of Jehovah as "Lord of the whole earth," which is…
Read the whole note in the consoleRashi on Joshua 3:11
The covenant of the Master of all the earth. The covenant of the Holy One, blessed is He, Who is the Master of all the earth. Do not wonder about the letter ה of the word הַבְּרִית9It should have been written בְּרִית אָדוֹן, without the ה. for there are many Scriptual words that are so constructed, such as: ‘הַמִסְגְּרוֹת הַמְכוֹנוֹת, the borders of the foundation.’10II Malachim 16:17. It should have been written מִסְגְרוֹת הַמְכוֹנוֹת without the ה'. הָעֵמֶק הַפְּגָרִים, the valley of the corpses.11Yirmeyahu 31:39. It should have been written עֵמֶק הַפְגָרִים without the ה.
Will cross over before You. It will go before you to enter into the Jordan.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
