river

Jordan

• Today Jordan River

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History

The Jordan rises at the foot of Mount Hermon from springs at Dan, Banias and the Hasbani, passes the former Lake Hula and enters the Sea of Galilee, about 210 m below sea level. From there it winds for more than 200 km through the deep trench of the Ghor to the Dead Sea, about 430 m below the sea and the lowest point on land, though the straight distance is barely 105 km. The Yarmuk and the Jabbok join it from the east. It is a narrow, muddy, winding river, hemmed in by tamarisk and willow; in spring, swollen by melting snow, it "overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest", and Jeremiah speaks of "the swelling of Jordan".

Lot "beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where" and chose it. Jacob prayed, "with my staff I passed over this Jordan". The river was the border of the promised land: Moses was not allowed to cross it, and under Joshua the priests bearing the ark stood in the riverbed while the waters "stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam", and the people passed over opposite Jericho. Gideon seized its fords against Midian, the Gileadites killed at its passages the Ephraimites who could not say Shibboleth, David crossed it fleeing from Absalom, Elijah smote the waters with his mantle and went over on dry ground, and Naaman the Syrian, told to "wash in Jordan seven times", was healed of his leprosy.

In the Gospels the Jordan is the river of John the Baptist: all Judea went out to him "and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan". Jesus came "from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him", and John's Gospel places the baptizing at Bethabara (in most manuscripts, Bethany) beyond Jordan. Later Jesus withdrew again "beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized". The site venerated since Byzantine times, al-Maghtas on the east bank opposite Jericho, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2015; Qasr al-Yahud faces it on the west bank.

Today the lower Jordan forms the border between the Kingdom of Jordan and Israel and the West Bank. Since the 1960s Israel's National Water Carrier, Jordan's King Abdullah Canal and dams on the Yarmuk have taken most of its water, so that the river south of the Sea of Galilee carries only a small fraction of its natural flow and the Dead Sea falls by about a metre a year. The city Adam of Joshua's account is identified with Tell ed-Damiyeh, where landslides have dammed the river, as in 1927.

Scripture: Gen 13:10–11; Gen 32:10; Deut 3:27; Josh 3:14–17; Judg 7:24; Judg 12:5–6; 2 Sam 17:22; 2 Kgs 2:8; 2 Kgs 5:10–14; Ps 114:3–5; Jer 12:5; Matt 3:13; Mark 1:5; John 1:28; John 10:40

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (202)

Gen 32:10

I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.

Gen 50:10

And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

Gen 50:11

And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan.

Num 13:29

The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.

Num 22:1

And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho.

Num 26:3

And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

Num 26:63

These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

Num 31:12

And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.

Num 32:5

Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan.

Num 32:19

For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, or forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side Jordan eastward.

Num 32:21

And will go all of you armed over Jordan before the LORD, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him,

Num 32:22

And the land be subdued before the LORD: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the LORD, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the LORD.

Num 32:29

And Moses said unto them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over Jordan, every man armed to battle, before the LORD, and the land shall be subdued before you; then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:

Num 32:32

We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side Jordan may be ours.

Num 33:48

And they departed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

Num 33:49

And they pitched by Jordan, from Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab.

Num 33:50

And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

Num 33:51

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;

Num 34:12

And the border shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea: this shall be your land with the coasts thereof round about.

Num 34:15

The two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance on this side Jordan near Jericho eastward, toward the sunrising.

Num 35:1

And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

Num 35:10

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come over Jordan into the land of Canaan;

Num 35:14

Ye shall give three cities on this side Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan, which shall be cities of refuge.

Num 36:13

These are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

Deut 1:1

These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

Deut 1:5

On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,

Deut 2:29

(As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the LORD our God giveth us.

Deut 3:8

And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto mount Hermon;

Deut 3:17

The plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdoth-pisgah eastward.

Deut 3:18

And I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God hath given you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war.

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