Joshua 4:19-5:12

New King James Version

¹⁹ Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped ^(A)in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. ²⁰ And ^(B)those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. ²¹ Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying: ^(C)“When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ ²² then you shall let your children know, saying, ^(D)‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on ^(E)dry land’; ²³ for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, ^(F)which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, ^24 (G)that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is ^(H)mighty, that you may ^(I)fear the Lord your God ^[a]forever.”

The Second Generation Circumcised

5 So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites ^(J)who were by the sea, ^(K)heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until ^[b]we had crossed over, that ^[c]their heart melted; ^(L)and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.

² At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make ^(M)flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.” ³ So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at ^[d]the hill of the foreskins. ⁴ And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: ^(N)All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. ⁵ For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. ⁶ For the children of Israel walked ^(O)forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were ^[e]consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that ^(P)He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, ^(Q)“a land flowing with milk and honey.” ⁷ Then Joshua circumcised ^(R)their sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

⁸ So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp ^(S)till they were healed. ⁹ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away ^(T)the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called ^(U)Gilgal^[f] to this day.

¹⁰ Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover ^(V)on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. ¹¹ And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and ^[g]parched grain, on the very same day. ¹² Then ^(W)the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.