What Does Joshua 3:2 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host;
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
The word for the officers moving through the camp is also the Hebrew verb for crossing over, so the crossing begins among the people before it reaches the river.
THE MEANING
A passage can begin before its visible boundary: movement is already passing through the gathered whole. After three days, the officers go through the camp, and the coming crossing is already taking shape within the community.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that change begins only at the boundary falls away: here, the first movement comes while the people are still within the camp.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעַבְרוּ
vayyaʿavru
GROWS FROM
עבר
To pass through, cross over, or go beyond.
“went through” in this verse is vayyaʿavru. The verb עבר describes both movement through a space and crossing over to the other side. Hebrew uses this same root for the officers’ movement through the camp and Israel’s later crossing over the Jordan, linking the small passage within the community to the crossing ahead.
ALSO GROWS
ʿever: Beyond; the other side.
עֵבֶר
The word for the far side grows from the same root as the officers’ movement through the camp.
maʿavār: A passage, crossing, or ford.
מַעֲבָר
This branch names a place or means of crossing, making visible how the verb for going through also opens toward passage across.
THE PATTERN
The language of passage links movement within a community to the crossing that carries it to the far side.
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.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.The root עבר appears here in “passed over”: in 3:2 the officers move through the camp, and by 3:17 all Israel has crossed the Jordan. The movement through the community opens into the whole people’s completed crossing.
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