3:1 Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to [a journey of about ten miles] the Jordan where they camped before crossing over.
3:2 After three days [on the third day] the officers went throughout the camp,
3:3 giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant [symbolized God’s presence among His people; contained the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments had been written, a jar of manna, and Aaron’s staff (symbol of the high priest’s authority)] of the LORD your God, and the priests [only the priests were permitted to carry the ark], who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions [specific locations in the camp and an assigned order in the march] and follow [better to follow God than to try to get ahead of Him] it.
3:4 Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before [important to follow God, especially when you are venturing to places where you have never been before]. But keep a distance [because the ark was very holy] of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it.”
3:5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves [involved bathing, washing one’s clothing, abstinence from sexual activity (Ex. 19:14-15)], for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing [miraculous] things among you.”
3:6 Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.
3:7 And the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you [this miracle would help confirm Joshua’s leadership] in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.
3:8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river [the river at this time was overflowing its banks].’”
3:9 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen [a call to listen and obey] to the words of [points to the source of Joshua’s message] the LORD your God [Joshua pointed the people to the Lord and His greatness].
3:10 This [their obedience to God] is how you will know that the living [as opposed to the dead idols of the heathen nations that inhabited the promised land (cf. Ps. 115:3-7)] God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites [lived in the lowlands of the seacoast and the Jordan valley (Num. 13:29)], Hittites, Hivites [cf. Josh. 11:3], Perizzites [lived in the central highlands (Gen. 13:7; 34:30)], Girgashites, Amorites [lived in the mountainous areas (Num. 13:29) and Jebusites [inhabited Jerusalem (Josh. 15:63)].
3:11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.
3:12 Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.
3:13 And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord [ruler, owner] of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
3:14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead [cf. Josh. 3:3-4] of them.
3:15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage [Jordan normally about a hundred feet wide but as much as a mile wide in flood season (Wiersbe); making a crossing a dangerous, if not an impossible, venture] all during harvest. Yet as soon as [faith must come first] the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched [faith in action] the water’s edge,
Note: “Unless we step out by faith (1:3) and ‘get our feet wet,’ we’re not likely to make much progress in living for Christ and serving Him. … Unless we are willing to step out by faith and obey His Word, God can never open the way for us.” (Wiersbe • Be Strong • p. 51)
3:16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance [about twenty miles] away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) [the Dead Sea] was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
3:17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground [no longer covered with water] in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
Your picture is wrong, the bible said to that the people were to stay a great distance from the Ark yet your picture has the people right next to it.
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You are correct that the pic does not depict the distance the people should have kept from the ark of the covenant. It is merely a Sunday school sketch designed to show what it must have been like to see the Levites starting to move ahead with the ark.
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