Joshua 5
Common English Bible
Enemy kings react
5 All the Amorite kings on the west side of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings near the sea heard that the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over. Then their hearts melted. They lost all courage because of the Israelites.
Circumcision
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make yourself flint knives. Circumcise the Israelites for a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives for himself. He circumcised the Israelites at Foreskins Hill. 4 This is the reason Joshua did so: All the people who went out of Egypt, that is, all the men who were soldiers, had died in the desert on the way after they left Egypt. 5 All the people who went out were circumcised. But none of the people born in the desert on the way after they had left Egypt had been circumcised. 6 This was because the Israelites journeyed forty years in the desert until the whole nation died off. These were the men old enough to fight who went out from Egypt and who hadn’t obeyed the Lord. The Lord had pledged to them never to show them the land that the Lord had pledged to their ancestors to give us. It is a land full of milk and honey. 7 Joshua circumcised their children, the ones the Lord had set in their place. They were uncircumcised because they hadn’t been circumcised on the way. 8 After the whole nation had undergone circumcision, they remained in the camp until they got well again. 9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” So the place was called Gilgal,[a] as it is today.
Passover
10 The Israelites camped in Gilgal. They celebrated Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month[b] on the plains of Jericho. 11 On the very next day after Passover, they ate food produced in the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. 12 The manna stopped on that next day, when they ate food produced in the land. There was no longer any manna for the Israelites. So that year they ate the crops of the land of Canaan.
Commander of the Lord’s heavenly force
13 When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up. He caught sight of a man standing in front of him with his sword drawn. Joshua went up and said to him, “Are you on our side or that of our enemies?”
14 He said, “Neither! I’m the commander of the Lord’s heavenly force. Now I have arrived!”
Then Joshua fell flat on his face and worshipped. Joshua said to him, “What is my master saying to his servant?”
15 The commander of the Lord’s heavenly force said to Joshua, “Take your sandals off your feet because the place where you are standing is holy.” So Joshua did this.
Footnotes
- Joshua 5:9 Gilgal sounds like the Heb verb galal, “to roll away.”
- Joshua 5:10 March–April, Nisan
Joshua 5
Revised Geneva Translation
5 Now when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the children of Israel until they had gone over, their hearts fainted. And there was no courage in them anymore, because of the children of Israel.
2 At the same time, the LORD said to Joshua, “Make yourself sharp knives, return, and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.”
3 Then Joshua made himself sharp knives and circumcised the sons of Israel on the Hill of the Foreskins.
4 And this is why Joshua circumcised all the people (the males) who came out of Egypt: because all the men of war were dead in the wilderness along the way, after they came out of Egypt.
5 For all the people who came out were circumcised. But all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way, after they came out of Egypt, were not circumcised.
6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the people of the men of war who came out of Egypt were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD (and to whom the LORD swore that He would not show the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers, that He would give us, a land that flows with milk and honey).
7 So their sons, whom He raised up in their stead, Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised because they did not circumcise them along the way.
8 And when they had ended circumcising all the people, they stayed in the places in the camp until they were whole.
9 Afterward, the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I have taken away the shame of Egypt from you.” Therefore, He called the name of that place, Gilgal, to this day.
10 So the children of Israel stayed in Gilgal and kept the Feast of the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, on the plain of Jericho.
11 And on the day after the Passover — on the same day — they ate from the old grain of the land, unleavened bread and parched corn.
12 And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten from the old grain of the land. Nor did the children of Israel have manna anymore, but ate from the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
13 And when Joshua was near Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, there stood a man opposite him, having a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him, and said to him, “Are you on our side, or on our adversaries’?”
14 And he said, “No, but as a captain of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshipped, and said to him, “What does the LORD say to his servant?”
15 And the captain of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Loosen your shoe from your foot. For the place upon which you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.
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