The manner in which the priests stood in the middle of the Jordan seems certain: that they stood unmoved and fixed. But this some gather from the word hacen (discussed above, quest. 2); others from the motion of the waters [ceasing] at their [ceasing of] motion. “[It] is credible,” says Masius, “[that] they, out of great religion, did not move from [their] place — once they had fixed [their] feet — until they were bidden to bring up the ark, lest that huge mass of waters, hanging close over [their] necks, should itself also be moved.” But this reasoning, if [it] effected anything, would (I think) effect only this: [that] the priests did not move themselves southward — namely, along the length of the river — but not [that they did not move] to one or the other side of the breadth. For if they had moved themselves toward the bank whence they had advanced, the waters would have behaved no otherwise than when they [first] dipped their soles into the river from that same bank. Nay, that reasoning does not entirely exclude their motion along the length either. For since (as [was] said, part 1 quest. 7) the priests were only a moral efficient cause, [it] could be [that], wherever they stood in the Jordan’s channel, [and though they] walked about and moved themselves, they were a sign to the Angel for holding and bridling those [waters] physically. Yet this unmoved rest of the priests the word “standing” (vv. 3, 9, 10), which Scripture here uses so often, can sufficiently persuade. Otherwise, if they had moved about, they would not properly be said to have “stood, until all was fulfilled which the Lord had commanded Joshua” (v. 10). Besides, [it] would have been nearly all one whence the 12 stones were taken from the channel; for [the stones] would have been, and stood, in various parts. Thirdly: that they might show the force and power of God, [and] that they might make greater the spirits of the whole people crossing, [it] was fitting [that] they stand in that place where a greater heap of waves, and a greater peril from them, might be seen. But who would doubt [that] this was in the middle? But [there] is another manner [point], about which [it] can be doubted: namely, whether those same priests stood facing toward the bank of Jericho, or toward the other, whence they had come; or toward the mass of the upper waters; or, finally, toward the flight of the lower [waters] — that is, toward the South? And this last pleases me more. For thus their eyes were turned toward the crossing people; thus, [with the waters] hanging behind [their] backs, they, as it were, looked down upon the waters; thus their very look and face gave security and eagerness to the people; thus they signified [that] they were not looking out toward one bank or the other in fear of the waters. But since (ch. 3 part 2 quest. 2) [it] was said [that] one of the priests was foremost along the length of the ark, this too had to be [so] in that position; and thus, [it was] not only [the face] of the priests, but in a manner [that] of God himself, above the ark—
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—[the priests,] wont to sit [go] above the ark, guarded, animated, [and] revived all the crossing [people] by their look [face]. And [that] they left dry footprints, St. Jerome relates in the epitaph of the mother Paula, in these words: “In the middle of the dry channel the priests set [their] footprints.” But from [ch.] 3 part [2], last quest. (q. 11 [13]), this is now plain.