What Does 1 Chronicles 12:15 Mean in the King James?
These are they that went over Jordan in the first month, when it had overflown all his banks; and they put to flight all them of the valleys, both toward the east, and toward the west.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
They cross the Jordan at flood stage, so the verse places the way through inside the river’s fullness.
THE MEANING
The way through is present while the Jordan is overflowing its banks. The crossing’s force reaches the valleys on both sides, putting their occupants to flight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A way forward is possible only after the surrounding force has receded.
THE ROOT
עָבְרוּ
ʿāḇərû
GROWS FROM
עבר
To pass over, cross, or pass through.
“went over” in this verse is ʿāḇərû. The Hebrew verb names movement across a boundary, while עֵבֶר (ʿēber) names what lies beyond or on the other side. The crossing happens with the river at its height, making the passage itself, not the disappearance of the obstacle, the center of the verse.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāḇar: To pass over or cross.
עָבַר
This is the verb behind “went over”: the men move across the Jordan’s boundary.
ʿēber: Beyond, across, or the other side.
עֵבֶר
The root can name both the act of crossing and the far side toward which the crossing moves.
maʿāḇār: A passage, crossing, or ford.
מַעֲבָר
This branch names a place or means of crossing, bringing the root’s movement into the idea of a passage through.
יַרְדֵּן
Yardēn
GROWS FROM
ירד
To descend or go down.
Jordan’s name is connected with יָרַד (yāraḏ), “to descend.” The verse therefore names a flowing descent at flood stage: the crossing meets the river in motion, not as an emptied channel.
ALSO GROWS
yāraḏ: To descend or go down.
יָרַד
This is the root associated with the Jordan’s name and evokes the river’s downward flow.
yerîḏāh: A descent or going down.
יְרִידָה
The noun preserves the root’s sense of a downward course, echoing the movement of the river being crossed.
hôrîḏ: To bring down or cause to descend.
הוֹרִיד
This causative form shows the root describing descent set in motion, matching the verse’s river as an active force.
THE PATTERN
A passage becomes possible while the boundary remains fully present.
And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.THE THREAD
And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.Both verses use forms of עבר (ʿāḇar), “to cross” or “pass over,” for movement through the Jordan. The shared root makes the crossing itself the central action, while Joshua’s verse shows the whole people completing the passage.
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