^13-14 When the priests who are carrying the Ark touch the water with their feet, the river will stop flowing as though held back by a dam, and will pile up as though against an invisible wall!” Now it was the harvest season and the Jordan was overflowing all its banks; but as the people set out to cross the river and as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, ^15-16 suddenly, far up the river at the city of Adam, near Zarethan, the water began piling up as though against a dam! And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was empty. Then all the people crossed at a spot where the river was close to the city of Jericho, ¹⁷ and the priests who were carrying the Ark stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan and waited as all the people passed by.

^15-16 For it was Joshua who, at the Lord’s command, issued the orders to the priests carrying the Ark.

“Come up from the riverbed,” the Lord now told him to command them.

¹⁷ So Joshua issued the order. ¹⁸ And as soon as the priests came out, the water poured down again as usual and overflowed the banks of the river as before!