Joshua 5

All the Amorite kings west of the Jordan River and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the water of the Jordan in front of the Israelites until they had crossed over. When they heard it, their courage melted away. They had no spirit left in them, because they were afraid of the Israelites.

1And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

Note"Amorite" and "Canaanite" are broad labels for the peoples living in the land before Israel; here "Canaanite" covers those along the Mediterranean coast and "Amorite" those inland. Their "kings" were rulers of single walled towns and their farmland, not monarchs of large nations. The Israelites were approaching from the east, so crossing the Jordan brought them into this territory. Note also that the Hebrew text as written says "until *we* had crossed over", the narrator slips into the first person and counts himself among the people; an old scribal reading tradition corrects it to "they."

2At that time the LORD said to Joshua, "Make knives out of flint and circumcise the men of Israel again, a second time."

2At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.

NoteCircumcision, the cutting away of the foreskin, was the physical mark of the agreement between God and Abraham, applied to every male in the household (Genesis 17). Flint was the traditional material for the blade, still used for this rite long after metal knives were common. "Again, a second time" is awkward in Hebrew as well as in English: nobody is circumcised twice, so the sense is that the nation as a whole undergoes the rite a second time, one generation after the first.

3So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the men of Israel at the place called the Hill of the Foreskins.

3And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

NoteThe place name in Hebrew is Gibeath-haaraloth, which means exactly what the rendering says: "hill of the foreskins." Places were routinely named after what happened at them.

4This is why Joshua circumcised them. Every male who came out of Egypt, that is, all the fighting men, had died in the desert along the way after they left Egypt.

4And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.

5All the people who came out of Egypt had been circumcised. But none of the people born in the desert on the journey from Egypt had been circumcised.

5Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.

6The Israelites traveled in the desert for forty years, until all the fighting men who came out of Egypt were gone, because they had not obeyed the LORD. The LORD had sworn to them that he would not let them see the land he had promised their fathers to give us, a land rich with milk and honey.

6For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

NoteThe forty years refer to the episode in Numbers 14, where the generation that left Egypt refused to enter the land and was told none of them would live to see it. "A land rich with milk and honey" is a stock phrase for good country: milk from flocks grazing open hill pasture, honey from wild bees, food that comes without heavy labor. As in verse 1, the Hebrew shifts to "give *us*," including the narrator and his hearers in the promise made to earlier generations.

7God raised up their sons to take their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised, because no one had circumcised them along the way.

7And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.

8When the whole nation had been circumcised, they stayed where they were in the camp until they were healed.

8And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole.

NoteAdult circumcision left the men sore and unable to fight for several days (compare Genesis 34:25), which is why the text notes that the whole camp stayed put until they healed.

9Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away from you the shame of Egypt." So the place is called Gilgal to this day.

9And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

NoteThe name Gilgal resembles the Hebrew verb *galal*, "to roll," so the place name and the phrase "rolled away" echo each other, a play on words rather than a translation of the name. "The shame of Egypt" is left open in the Hebrew: it may mean the disgrace of having been slaves there, or the taunting Egypt directed at Israel, or the uncircumcised condition the desert generation shared with the nations around them.

10The Israelites camped at Gilgal, and on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month they kept the Passover on the flat land near Jericho.

10And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.

NotePassover was the yearly meal, eaten on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month (in early spring), that marked the night Israel left Egypt. The Hebrew day begins at sunset, so "the evening of the fourteenth" is the start of that date, not its end.

11The day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate food grown in the land: flat bread made without yeast, and roasted grain from the last harvest.

11And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.

NoteWhere the King James Version says "corn," it means grain of any kind, in 1611 English "corn" was the general word; maize was unknown in the ancient Near East. The grain was from a harvest already stored in the land, roasted over fire, a common way to eat new grain. Bread without yeast was required during the Passover festival, recalling a departure too hurried for dough to rise.

12The manna stopped the day after they ate food grown in the land. The Israelites had no more manna. That year they ate what the land of Canaan produced.

12And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

NoteManna was the flaky food that, according to Exodus 16, appeared on the ground each morning during the years in the desert and had to be gathered daily. Its stopping marks the end of that provision: from here the people live off crops like everyone else.

13When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you on our side, or on the side of our enemies?"

13And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?

Note"Are you for us or for our enemies?" is the challenge a sentry or commander puts to an armed stranger near a battlefield. The text simply calls the figure "a man," and only his answer in the next verse indicates otherwise.

14He answered, "No. I have come now as the commander of the LORD's army." Then Joshua fell facedown on the ground and worshiped, and said to him, "What does my lord have to say to his servant?"

14And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?

NoteThe reply refuses the question rather than answering it: the Hebrew is a flat "No," and ancient copies differ over whether it reads "no" or "neither." "Commander of the LORD's army" translates a military title; the "army" (King James "host") is the heavenly force, not Israel's troops. The gesture translated "worshiped" is prostration, lying face down, which in Hebrew could show homage to a human superior or reverence toward God, and the word Joshua uses, "my lord," works either way. The scene keeps the ambiguity.

15The commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, "Take your sandal off your foot, because the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did it.

15And the captain of the LORD’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.