Psalm 114 · a question people ask
"The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back" (114:3). Which sea, and when?
The psalm names the Jordan, but not the sea, and it gives no time beyond its first words: "When Israel went out of Egypt" (114:1). Exodus tells of the sea at the going out: "the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided" (Exodus 14:21). Joshua tells of the Jordan: "all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the nation had passed completely over the Jordan" (Joshua 3:17). Joshua 4 sets the two side by side, in the answer Israel is to give its children about the stones taken out of the Jordan (Joshua 4:20-22): "For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you until you had crossed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea" (Joshua 4:23). Psalm 114 puts the sea and the Jordan in one verse and doesn't say how far apart they came. Psalm 66's notes ask the same question of "He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the river on foot" (Psalm 66:6), and Joshua 3's notes set the two crossings side by side; these notes don't repeat them.
The verses
“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language,”
“The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.”
“Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.”
“The priests who bore the ark of the LORD’s covenant stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the nation had passed completely over the Jordan.”