What Day of the Week Did the 14th of Nisan Fall On the Year Israel Crossed Into the Land of Canaan?
A Brief Explanation of the Miraculous Events Contained in the Riveting Opening Chapters of Joshua and Joshua Chapter Five From the Enlightening Perspective of the Hebrew Calendar Based on the Fascinating Biblical Narratives Contained in the Extraordinary Books of Exodus and Joshua.
By Brett Gray and Kyle Bacher
On what day of the week did the 14th of Nisan fall in the year Israel entered the land of Canaan? Are there any clues from Scripture we can use to determine this?
When combined with the Hebrew calendar, Scripture provides a number of clues that tell us exactly what day of the week it was when they crossed the Jordan and what day of the week it was on that first Nisan 14 in the land of Canaan.
The Evidence
The Hebrew Calendar, as made public by Hillel II, is a mathematical marvel that operates under a very specific set of rules, and using those rules, we can determine a great many things about the year the Israelites entered the land of Canaan. We will set forth some of those rules before we begin to make the topic easier to understand.
First, the seven months that contain the Holy Days are of a fixed length, and they do not vary from year to year as the other 5 or 6 do. Thus, the first month of the year, Nisan, is 30 days in length regardless of whether the year is a leap year or a common year.
Second, the 14th of Nisan, that is, the 14th day of the first month, can only fall on certain days of the week because of the postponements — the small mathematical adjustments that keep the calendar in sync with the lunar cycle. These days are Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Since the length of the month is fixed, this means that the 14th day of the second month can only fall on certain days as well, these days being Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Now that we have our rules set forth, we can begin. However, we must begin not in the Book of Joshua but in the Book of Exodus. The reason for this has to do with the mathematics of the calendar, as will soon become apparent.
So, let’s first look at the year the Israelites left Egypt to determine what day of the week the 14th of Nisan was that year. We are given the exact day of the week that they left Egypt in Exodus chapter 16. We are told that the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin on the 15th day of the second month, or the 15th of Iyar.
Exodus 16:1 (AFV) says, “And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai. And on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt…”
Like the other days on the Hebrew calendar during the first seven months, the 15th of Iyar can only fall on certain days of the week. Those days are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Because of this, we know that the 15th day of the second month must have fallen on one of these days, which helps to clarify the narrative that follows.
Exodus 16:12 (AFV) says, "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'Between the two evenings you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God.' "
Exodus 16:13 (AFV) And it came to pass, at sunset, that the quails came up and covered the camp. And at sunrise, the dew lay all around the camp.
Exodus 16:14 (AFV) And when the layer of dew had gone up, behold, there was a small round thing upon the face of the wilderness, small as the hoar-frost upon the ground.
Exodus 16:16 (AFV) This is the thing which the LORD has commanded. 'Each man gather of it according to his eating, an omer for each one, according to the number of your persons. Each one shall take for those who are in his tent.' "
Exodus 16:17 (AFV) And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, and some less.
Exodus 16:18 (AFV) And when they measured with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little lacked nothing. They gathered each one according to his eating.
Exodus 16:19 (AFV) And Moses said, "Let no man leave any of it until the next morning."
Exodus 16:20 (AFV) But they did not hearken to Moses, and some of them left part of it until the next morning. And it became rotten with maggots, and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
Exodus 16:21 (AFV) And they gathered it morning by morning, each man according to his eating. And when the sun became hot, it melted.
Exodus 16:22 (AFV) And it came to pass, on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
Exodus 16:23 (AFV) And he said to them, "This is that which the LORD has said, 'Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil. And that which remains over, lay up for yourselves to be kept until the next morning.' "
So they gathered the manna for six days, prepared twice as much on the sixth day of the week, and then rested on the seventh day. This means the day the manna first fell must have been a Sunday, the day after a Sabbath. So the day after Iyar 15 was a Sunday, making Iyar 15 a Sabbath.
There is no other scenario in which the Israelites could gather manna day by day for six days and then rest on the seventh day. God never sent manna on the Sabbath, as we’re plainly told in Exodus 16. So if Iyar 15 was a Monday, then the 16th would’ve been a Tuesday, and Israel could’ve gathered manna only for 4 days. If Iyar 15 was instead a Tuesday or Thursday, then Israel could’ve gathered manna only for 3 days or 1 day, respectively.
So that leaves us with a Saturday on the 15th of the second month, and that timeline fits quite well. They arrive on the 15th, a Sabbath, they murmur and complain, the quail comes that evening, then the next morning, Sunday, God sends the manna for the first time.
Now that we know the day of the week for the 15th day of the second month, we can work backward to the first month and discover what day of the week the 15th would have been in that month, too.
28/7 = 4
We have four full weeks contained in 28 days, which brings us to the same day of the week as in the second month. Next, we go two days before that day to get us to our full thirty days, and we have the day of the week for the 15th figured out. Two days prior to Saturday, it would have been a Thursday, and the day before that, the 14th of Nisan, would have been a Wednesday.
Saturday - 2 = Thursday
So, now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the 14th of Nisan, the year they left Egypt, was a Wednesday. We can now take this and plug it into our Hebrew calendar to figure out what day of the week Nisan 14 would be 40 years later.
Here’s the thing about the Hebrew calendar: whatever day of the week the 14th falls on in a given year, it only has two options on which to land forty years later. It can either fall on the same day or the next one in the series of four that we established earlier. Forty years after Nisan 14 falls on a Wednesday, it can only fall on a Wednesday or a Friday, no other days of the week.
We first discovered this by manually sifting through almost two hundred years of dates around the time of the Exodus, using a spreadsheet to calculate the day of the week Nisan 14 fell on in any given year, as well as its corresponding Gregorian date. From 1571 BC to 1382 BC, we found precisely zero examples where, if Nisan 14 fell on Wednesday one year, it could fall on any day but Wednesday or Friday forty years later. After doing some further research and calculations, we found that any other scenario is not mathematically possible on the Hebrew calendar.
We’ve produced a table here showing all these examples, which you can find on the following pages. For the sake of brevity, we’ve included every possible Exodus year where Nisan 14 fell on a Wednesday, but none of the years where Nisan 14 fell on any other weekday. We’ve checked, double-checked, and triple-checked all these dates, but please feel free to check them again.
On the left-hand side, you can see the Hebrew calendar date, including the year numbers used on the calendar today. Next, you’ll see the corresponding BC year and then the weekday. On the right-hand side, you can see the corresponding weekday, Hebrew calendar date, and BC year forty years later.
For ease of reference, all Wednesday-Wednesday pairs are marked in red, and all Wednesday-Friday pairs are marked in blue.
As demonstrated by the table, every year that Nisan 14 falls on a Wednesday is followed 40 years later by Nisan 14 falling on either a Wednesday or Friday, but never on a Saturday or Monday.
Timeline of Joshua 1-4
So, did Nisan 14th in the year Israel entered Canaan fall on a Wednesday or a Friday?
Based on the narrative, we can determine a likely possibility, and we find our starting point for reconstructing the timeline in the first four chapters of Joshua. The statement in question is this: “Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth [day] of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho” (Josh. 4:19).
Lest there should be any doubt that the entire crossing happened on the same day, the Bible tells us so several times. In Josh. 3:5, “Joshua said to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.’” A couple of verses later, evidently on the day of the crossing, “The LORD said to Joshua, ‘This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, [so] I will be with you’” (Josh. 3:7). And after Israel crossed over, we read, “On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life” (Josh. 4:14).
So Israel crossed the Jordan River in one day, Nisan 10. Counting backward from there, we’re given two different statements and two slightly different lengths of time.
The first is in Josh. 1:10-11: “Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, ‘Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, “Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.”’” So, after Joshua instructed the people to prepare to cross the Jordan, they did so within three days. There will be more on this in a moment.
The second is in Josh. 3:1-5:
1 Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over.
2 So it was, after three days, that the officers went through the camp;
3 and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.
5 And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”
At the end of three days of encampment by the Jordan, the officers instructed the people about the crossing. Then Joshua told them that they would cross tomorrow, making that the fourth day.
So Nisan 10 was the fourth day from when Israel camped by the Jordan. It was also within three days from when Joshua told the people to prepare provisions for the crossing.
“Within Three Days”
The Hebrew phrase translated as “within three days” is b’od sh’loshet yamim, with the word b’od being the word translated as “within.” The base word is od (Strong’s # H5750), which means “still, yet, again, besides.” The “b’” at the beginning basically means “in” or “on.” So a literal translation of b’od would be “in yet”: in yet three days, you will cross over the Jordan.
An example is found in Gen. 48:7, where Jacob said, “And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet [b’od] [there was] but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same [is] Bethlehem” (KJV).
But it also does indeed mean “within,” that is, before the specified time period has expired. For example, “And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet [b’od] day, David sware, saying, So do God to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or ought else, till the sun be down” (2 Sam. 3:35; KJV). That is, the people wanted him to eat within that day, before it ended. Again, “And he said, While the child was yet [b’od] alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell [whether] GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?” (2 Sam. 12:22; KJV). David fasted and wept while his son was still alive, but not after he died.
So, getting back to Joshua, he told the people that they would cross the Jordan in three days, but also within those three days, before they had expired. Or, as we might simply say, “on the third day.”
It’s important to note that this is also how the phrase is used elsewhere in Scripture. The phrase b’od sh’loshet yamim, “within three days,” occurs in just two other verses in all of Scripture, both in Genesis 40 (vv. 13, 19). In this case, we’re plainly told later that the events happened as prophesied “on the third day” (Gen. 40:20), before the day had ended.
We see a similar pattern in the New Testament with Jesus’s death and resurrection. He died at the ninth hour on Wednesday, Nisan 14, and was buried shortly before sunset. Since the day was all but over, it wasn’t counted as the first day. The next day, Nisan 15, was the first night and day that He was in the grave. Nisan 16 was the second day. And Nisan 17, the Sabbath, was the third day. He rose from the dead on the third day, before it had quite ended.
So Nisan 10 was the third day from when Joshua told the people to prepare to cross the Jordan. That makes Nisan 9 the second day and Nisan 8 the first day.
Either Joshua gave his instructions on Nisan 8 and the people began to prepare on the same day, or else he gave his instructions at the end of Nisan 7, so that that day could not be counted as the first day. Either way, the day they were told to begin preparing was Nisan 8.
“After Three Days”
As we saw earlier, Nisan 10 was also four days after Israel camped by the Jordan. The previous day, Nisan 9, Joshua had told the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you” (Josh. 3:5).
It was also on Nisan 9 that the officers instructed the people for the crossing, and we’re told that this happened “after three days” of camping by the Jordan (Josh. 3:1-2). “After” is miktzeh. The Hebrew prefix m’ means “of” or “from,” and the other part of the word is katzeh (Strong’s # H7097), which means “end” or “extremity.” So basically, this happened “at the end of three days,” which is also how Young’s Literal Translation renders it.
If Nisan 10 was the fourth day and Nisan 9 the third day from when Israel camped by the Jordan, then Nisan 8 would’ve been the second day and Nisan 7 the first day. So it seems that it was on Nisan 7 that Israel encamped at the Jordan. The next day, Nisan 8, Joshua told them to begin preparing to cross.
Israel’s journey to the Jordan River happened the day after the spies returned to Joshua (Josh. 2:23-3:1). The spies returned after hiding in the hills for three days (Josh. 2:16, 22). With Rahab’s help, they escaped from Jericho the same evening they arrived (Josh. 2:1-8). We aren’t told what day Joshua sent them out or how long they scouted the countryside before entering Jericho.
Reconstructed Timeline
Based on all this, here’s a reconstructed timeline of the first four chapters of Joshua. The only days that don’t have any wiggle room are Nisan 8, 9, and 10, based on the phrase “within three days” or “in yet three days.” The other dates may be somewhat more flexible.
Nisan 10 — Israel crosses the Jordan
Nisan 9 — The officers give final instructions, and Joshua tells the people they will cross tomorrow
Nisan 8 — Joshua tells the people to prepare provisions for the crossing
Nisan 7 — Israel camps by the Jordan
Nisan 6 — The spies come out of hiding and return to Joshua
Nisan 4 — The spies leave Jericho and begin hiding in the hills
Implications
We’ve already established that Nisan 14 in the year Israel crossed the Jordan could’ve only been on Wednesday or Friday, which puts Nisan 10 only on Sabbath or Monday. This gives us two options to choose from.
If Nisan 10 was on a Sabbath, then obviously Israel must’ve crossed the Jordan on the Sabbath. If Nisan 10 was instead on a Monday, then Nisan 8, the first day of preparation for the crossing, would’ve been on a Sabbath. So either Israel crossed the Jordan on the Sabbath or began preparing provisions for the crossing on the Sabbath. These are the only two choices.
We would argue that it would be much more acceptable for Israel to cross the Jordan at God’s direct command on the Sabbath than it would be to prepare provisions on the Sabbath.
Israel began the journey out of Egypt on Nisan 15, the First Day of Unleavened Bread (Num. 33:3). They probably crossed the Red Sea on the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. They marched around Jericho on the Sabbath. All these things, of course, were at God’s direct command.
On the other hand, God never gave the Israelites permission to prepare provisions on the Sabbath. He expressly prohibited it, telling them to prepare their food on Friday instead (Ex. 16:22-29). And a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath was put to death for it at God’s command (Num. 15:32-36).
But there are some other clues that the Jordan crossing happened on the Sabbath, too. They aren’t rock-solid evidence on their own, mind you, but they do help to build the case.
First, Acacia Grove, where Israel had previously been camped (Josh. 2:1; 3:1), was only a few miles from the Jordan. Num. 33:49 describes it as “by the Jordan.” But Israel journeyed right up to the Jordan and camped there just to be closer for the crossing.
Secondly, the very fact that Joshua told the people to prepare provisions for the crossing is another clue. It wasn’t a long journey; it would seem unnecessary to spend two days preparing food for such a short journey. But if the crossing was on the Sabbath, it makes more sense that they so diligently prepared ahead of time.
Thirdly, Joshua told the people on the previous day, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you” (Josh. 3:5). “Sanctify” is the same word used when God sanctified the Sabbath in Gen. 2:3. It’s qadash (Strong’s # H6942), which means to set apart or consecrate. Israel was embarking on a sacred mission, and God was among them and leading them.
So, based on all these considerations, it seems that the only possible scenario is that Israel crossed the Jordan River on the Sabbath, Nisan 10. That means that Nisan 14 was a Wednesday that year, just as it was in the year of the Exodus and again in the year Jesus was crucified.
Conclusion
According to the structured calculations of the Hebrew calendar, as later made public by Hillel II, it is mathematically impossible for Nisan 14 to have fallen on a Saturday precisely forty years after it previously occurred on a Wednesday. The cyclical nature of the calendar, governed by fixed intercalary patterns and specific postponement rules, dictates that the 14th of Nisan in that 40th year could only have occurred on a Wednesday or a Friday. A Saturday Passover in that time frame is entirely precluded by the established system. The year the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan could not have been the exceptional sort of year when the 14th fell on a Sabbath. This all stands true based on the precise mathematics of the calendar Hillel II made public, now commonly called the calculated Hebrew calendar.
Furthermore, the year the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan could not have been an exception to these patterns, as the established mathematical structure of the calendar does not allow for a Sabbath Nisan 14 in that time frame. Since the Hebrew calendar functions with predictable cycles, the impossibility of a Saturday 14th of Nisan in that 40th year further reinforces the consistency of the system preserved by Hillel II. Therefore, any interpretation that depends on a Sabbath Nisan 14 in that year must be set aside in favor of the clear mathematical reality of the Hebrew calendar.
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