Now therefore take twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, for every tribe a man.
That mighty rivers sometimes stop flowing for a day, or even flow upstream, cannot be denied.  "The Jordan itself, in the year 1266, was left dry for ten hours as the result of a landslide; and in 1927, an earthquake near Adam (Adamah), stopped the Jordan's flow for twenty-one hours."[23] Also, there is the amazing instance right here in America of the New Madrid (Missouri) Earthquake of 1811,1812 (Three shocks in December, January, and February), that sent the Mississippi River running upstream for 27 hours, when the flow of the river filled Reelfoot Lake formed by the earthquake![24]  The Jordan river, near Adam, moves through an area with high mud-cliffs (150 feet high) on each side; and the instances in which the river has stopped flowing (historically), the strong current had undermined a portion of these cliffs, causing the sudden landfill that stopped the river.  This writer finds no difficulty at all in the supposition that such a thing is exactly what God brought about here, by miraculous design, timed exactly to fit the crossing of Israel, and made known in advance to Joshua.  Those factors of the occurrence make it just as miraculous as any supernatural event could possibly be.