The time in which the same priests stood in the Jordan the context defines fourfold. First: in the preceding chapter (v. 17), in the Hebrew, “until all the nation had made an end of crossing.” But that this was a time of several hours [was] said [in ch.3] part 2, quest. 13. Secondly: in this chapter (v. 10), “until all was fulfilled which the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, and Moses had said to him.” That signifies [that] both those addresses which Joshua had made to the people at the time of the crossing itself, and those [things] which were foretold in the addresses made above (ch. 3), were finished, before the priests departed from their Jordanian station. But that [phrase], “which Moses had commanded,” the 70 omit; and they refer [it] (ch. 7), in the cited [tractate] Sotah of the Talmud, to the stones which Moses had commanded to be set up on Mount Ebal (Deut. 27) — but in two ways. For some of them really will [have it that] the stones were set up on that very day of the crossing, and [that] the priests did not leave their station in the Jordan before they were set up. But how would the Israelites have come to that place that day? — and these fictions the narrative of the eighth chapter will clearly rout below. Others, however (as Radak), do not understand [that] those stones were really set up today, but [that] the words were made by Joshua about setting them up; and thus, as to their opinion, the end would be [that] the priests did not depart from their place. But [there is] here no mention, even the least, of those stones; and because [it] is, in the former part of the words which I now expound, col dabar [כׇּל־דָּבָר, “every word/thing”] about all [things] — [it] is understood, as I said, either of the [things] said in this chapter, or of the [things] foretold in the preceding chapter — both as to the crossing of the people, and [as to] the stones to be brought out and brought in. Abulensis, then (q. 14), thinks these [words] are understood [of] those [things] which Moses had said about the leading into the land of Canaan through Joshua (Num. 27 [printed “17”]; Deut. 3 & 31). Masius [understands] generally all [things] which Moses had taught Joshua and commanded him, about the accurate performance of obedience to God’s commands. And [it] can be confirmed from the Hebrew, in which, word for word, [it] is thus: “And the priests, bearers of the ark, were standing in the middle of the Jordan, until every word which the Lord had commanded Joshua was fulfilled, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua.” Where that [word] “according to” seems to modify, not what the Lord had commanded, but that fulfilment of every word — that is, until all [things] which the Lord had commanded Joshua were administered and brought to completion by Joshua himself, in that manner and with that obedience and eagerness which Moses had always commanded and commended to him. Thirdly: the time in which the priests stood in the Jordan is defined here (v. 11)—
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—[v. 11:] “And when all had crossed, the ark of the Lord also crossed; and the priests too went before the Lord.” The ark crossed, I say, from the Jordan — namely, from the middle; or, [having] begun [the crossing] up to the middle transit, [it] now completed [it] up to the other bank: not, as the Talmudists trifle in the cited place, and [those] in Lyranus and Abulensis (q. 20), R. Solomon [Rashi] — [that] it returned to the former bank, and again crossed through the mid-flowing waters, and carried off its bearers with it. “Before the people the priests went” — that is, the people watching; or rather, that they might now hold the order of advancing prescribed elsewhere: when the last were going out of the channel, they went on through the midst of the people waiting on the bank, so that in advancing they might hold the foremost [places] thereafter, and [that] between the people and the ark there might be two thousand cubits. Fourthly: the same time is handed down (vv. 16 & 17) — namely, as to going out, and being bidden by Joshua to come up from the channel of the Jordan itself. And [that there] was in these priests the greatest patience, constancy, and obedience, whoever will consider [it] will recognize — [he] who has weighed their desire, too, at last some day, to see and tread the highest [best] land, so long sought; the delay in the channel so long-lasting; the unmoved rest of so many hours; the carrying-out and bringing-in of so many stones done in between; the bearing of the ark on [their] shoulders for so long a time; and other [things] of that kind.