Joshua 5

Evangelical Heritage Version

Circumcision Renewed

5 When all the kings of the Amorites who were in the region west of the Jordan and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of the people of Israel until we^[a] had crossed over, their hearts melted, and they lost all courage in the presence of the Israelites.

² At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives, and circumcise the sons of Israel again, a second time.” ³ So Joshua made flint knives, and he circumcised the sons of Israel at the Hill of the Foreskins.

⁴ This is the reason Joshua had to circumcise the men of Israel again: All the people who came up out of Egypt—all the males, the fighting men—died in the wilderness along the way after they came out of Egypt. ⁵ All the people who came out of Egypt had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey after they had come out from Egypt had not been circumcised. ⁶ Yes, for forty years the Israelites walked through the wilderness until the whole nation was gone—all the fighting men who had gone out from Egypt, who had not listened to the voice of the Lord. The Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁷ So it was their sons, whom the Lord had raised up in their place, whom Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised, since the people had not circumcised them during the journey.

⁸ When the whole nation had been circumcised, they stayed at their places in the camp until they recuperated.

⁹ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” So the name of that place is Gilgal^[b] to this day.

¹⁰ While the people of Israel were camped at Gilgal, they celebrated the Passover on the plain near Jericho on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening at sunset. ¹¹ They ate from the produce of the land on the day after the Passover. On that very day they ate unleavened bread and roasted grain. ¹² The manna stopped the day after the first day that they had eaten from the produce of the land. The people of Israel no longer received manna. Instead, they ate from the crops of the land of Canaan that year.

The Commander of the Lord’s Army Leads the Campaign

¹³ When Joshua was at Jericho, he looked up and saw a man was standing right there in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said, “Are you one of us or one of our enemies?”

¹⁴ The man said, “Neither! I have now come as the commander of the army of the Lord.” Joshua fell with his face to the ground and worshipped. Then he said to him, “What does my Lord have to say to his servant?”

¹⁵ The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, “Take your sandals off your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy.” So Joshua did so.