Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
endeavours in this manner to get rid of it altogether. `al-kaal-gªbowtaayw might mean
full against all its banks, flowing with its banks full, or "full to the brim" ( Robinson ,
Pal. ii. p. 262, according to the LXX and Vulg. ); but if we compare Josh 4:18, "the
waters of Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before," with
the parallel passage in Isa 8:7, "the river comes up over all its channels and goes over
all its banks," there can be no doubt that the words refer to an overflowing of the
banks, and not merely to their being filled to the brim, so that the words must be
rendered "go over the banks."
But we must not therefore understand them as meaning that the whole of the Ghor
was flooded. The Jordan flows through the Ghor, which is two hours' journey broad
at Beisan, and even broader to the south of that (see at Deut 1:1), in a valley about a
quarter of an hour in breadth which lies forty or fifty feet lower, and, being covered
with trees and reeds, presents a striking contrast to the sandy slopes which bound it
on both sides. In many places this strip of vegetation occupies a still deeper portion of
the lower valley, which is enclosed by shallow banks not more than two or three feet
high, so that, strictly speaking, we might distinguish three different banks at the
places referred to: namely, the upper or outer banks, which form the first slope of the
great valley; the lower or middle banks, embracing that strip of land which is covered
with vegetation; and then the true banks of the river's bed (see Burckhardt , Syr. pp.
593ff., and Robinson , Pal. ii. pp. 254ff., and Bibl. Researches, pp. 333ff.). The flood
never reaches beyond the lower line of the Ghor, which is covered with vegetation,
but even in modern times this line has sometimes been overflowed.
For example, Robinson (Pal. ii. p. 255, compared with p. 263) found the river so
swollen when he visited it in 1838, that it filled its bed to the very brim, and in some
places flowed over and covered the ground where the bushes grew. This rise of the
water still takes place at the time of harvest in April and at the beginning of May
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