It happened, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over the Jordan, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant being before the people;
The special significance of this miracle is, in part, due to the flooded stage of the Jordan.  Repeatedly, the Scriptures declare it to have been flooded "in the time of harvest," and it is rather ridiculous that some people have denied this.  Plummer pointed out that the wheat harvest, which comes six weeks later than the barley and flax harvest, is not the harvest time spoken of here.  The time was April, when the melting snows of Mount Hermon, as always in the time of the spring thaw, send the Jordan booming out of its banks.  It will be remembered that Rahab hid the spies in stacks of flax which had been harvested, identifying this "harvest time" as the one of the spring floods.