Most true [is] that which Vegetius says (bk. 3 ch. 7): “Adversaries pressing close [upon an enemy] are wont to make ambushes, or to come suddenly upon [them], at the crossings of rivers.” Caesar, Livy, Ammianus, [and] other historians [are] full of examples [of it]. [It is] indeed a most usual [thing] for this to be done by enemies. They meet [the crossers] at the rivers armed; they extend their banks with as much soldiery as they can; and, as the Poet expressed this custom:
“They will know wars, and forbid [us] to set foot upon the first land [the shore].”
What cause, then, shall we assign, that the bank of the Jordan was so peaceful — [that] no Amorites and Canaanites guarded it, [and that] none offered any trouble at all to the Israelites as they crossed? Two [things], namely — and those quite dissimilar — kept those [enemies] from the defense [of the bank]: excessive security, and huge fear. For because they saw [that] the Israelites had now for so many days stuck fast in the plains of Moab, they somewhat applauded themselves in [their] utmost dread, and persuaded themselves at times [that] those [Israelites] were unwilling to advance further — nay, [were] unable [to], because the Jordan would hinder them, [and] this especially at the harvest season, at which it is wont to overflow. And then, moreover — just as Rahab related (ch. 2 v. 9) — all the inhabitants of the land had fainted, nor, at the Israelites’ entry, had [there] remained in them [any] spirit, no prudence, no counsel; and more and more [there] came to pass that which the Lord had said (Deut. 2 v. 25): “This day I will begin to send the terror and the dread of you—
(col. 472 — right column; printed “479”)
—[the dread of you] upon the peoples that dwell under the whole heaven; that, hearing your name, they may be afraid, and tremble after the manner of women in labor, and be seized with pain.” The Lord willed, besides, [that] provision be made for the Israelites themselves. For just as, at the beginning of this pilgrimage and setting-out, the Lord takes care (Exod. 13 v. 17) lest the armed Philistines should throw themselves in the way of those setting out, so also now, at the end of it and at [their] first entry into the sought-for land, [he takes care] lest the Canaanites should hold the bank hostile [to them] with their arms. And the Lord did all this because it was for the good of the Jews themselves. For thus [they] more clearly perceived God’s providence toward them, and the truth of all those [things] which the Lord had foretold concerning the future terror of the nations, and which — as present in these very days — Rahab had signified and the spies had reported. For with a more tranquil and more intent mind they could [now] contemplate the present miracle of the divided and held-back Jordan, and turn over in [their] heart, and ponder, the wondrous power of the ark itself, [and] the unheard-of advance and standing-still of the priests.