Joshuachapter 5
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Key verse
Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached Him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?”
It stands in The prince of Jehovah's host, sword drawn, verses 13 to 15.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Before a sword is drawn, two covenant signs are restored. The wilderness generation's sons are circumcised with knives of flint at Gibeath-haaraloth, and Jehovah says, 'This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you', hence Gilgal. They keep the Passover on the fourteenth day in the plains of Jericho, eat of the produce of the land, and the manna ceases on the morrow. Then Joshua meets a man with drawn sword and asks whose side he is on; the answer refuses the question: 'as prince of the host of Jehovah am I now come.' Joshua falls, and is told to put off his shoe, for the place is holy.
Context
History · Joshua · Joshua overview
Where the chapter sits
Joshua 5 falls in Entry into the Land (chapters 1–5). Commissioning of Joshua; Rahab and the spies; Jordan crossing; memorial stones at Gilgal; circumcision and Passover; the Captain of the LORD's host.
The Captain of the LORD's host. ‘Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?’, the answer: ‘Nay, but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come.’
After it: Conquest campaigns, chapters 6–12.
The whole shape of Joshua→The world behind this chapter
Joshua 5The history
The whole wilderness generation of fighting men had died, and the sons born on the road had not been circumcised. The command to do it now, with an enemy city a few miles away, put the entire army out of action for days, a man recovering from that procedure cannot fight. The text notes the kings west of the Jordan had lost their nerve, which is the only reason the timing was survivable.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
Flint knives were used, not metal. Flint was the traditional implement for the rite, kept in use long after bronze was available, the way old religious practice preserves old tools.
The place was named Gilgal because God said he had rolled away the reproach of Egypt. Then, on the fourteenth day of the month, they kept the Passover on the plains of Jericho, the first one celebrated inside the land.
The next day they ate the produce of the land, unleavened bread and roasted grain from Jericho's own fields, and the manna stopped. Forty years of supernatural rations ended the morning after they ate a local harvest. From then on they ate what the land grew, like everyone else.
What it meant to them
First hearers would have felt the order of operations. Before a single wall fell, the covenant sign was restored, the Passover was kept, and the food changed. The campaign was framed as worship before it was framed as war.
Then Joshua meets a man with a drawn sword and asks the natural question, are you for us or for our enemies. The answer is neither: as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come. Joshua falls on his face and is told to take off his sandals, the same words Moses heard at the bush.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Carl Friedrich Keil & Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament
The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Flint knives and the reproach of Egypt rolled away
1. (v. 1)
Joshua 5:1
“The Amorites were the principal of those nations which occupied the hill country of Judaea (Gen 10:16 note); the Canaanites of those that dwelt on the coast and low lands. These words are therefore equivalent to “all the kings of the highlanders, and all the kings of the lowlanders:” i. e. the kings of all the tribes of the country.”
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Until we were passed over - The use of the first person has been noted here, and in Jos 5:6 (compare Act 16:10), as suggesting the hand of one who himself shared in what he describes.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 5:1evangelical
a.The kings hear what happened at the water and lose their nerve before a sword is drawn. Rahab had told the spies this was already happening in chapter 2, so the verse confirms a report the reader was given by a Canaanite before any Israelite said it. The Hebrew reads until we were passed over in the first person, which the older editions mark, and commentators take it as the writer placing himself among those who crossed.
2. (vv. 2-7)
Joshua 5:2
“Make thee sharp knives - חרבות צרים charboth tsurim, knives of rock, stone, or flint. Before the use of iron was common, all the nations of the earth had their edge-tools made of stones, flints, etc. In the lately discovered islands this is found to be a common case.”
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Our ancestors in these countries made their arrow and spear-heads of flint: these I have often seen turned up by the plough.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 5:2evangelical
Joshua 5:2, 1 more voice
Joshua 5:2
“The language, however, evidently points to a general circumcising on some previous occasion, which, though unrecorded, must have been made before the celebration of the passover at Sinai (compare Ex 12:48; Nu 9:5), as a mixed multitude accompanied the camp. "The second time" of general circumcising was at the entrance into Canaan.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)· Joshua 5:2reformed
Joshua 5:3
“The hill of the foreskins - i. e. the hill where the foreskins, the emblem of all worldly and carnal affections, were buried. (Compare Col 2:11-13; Col 3:1-6.)”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 5:3evangelical
Joshua 5:4
“The circumcision was given to Abraham before the law, after the blessings and after the promise, as a sign to set him and those born of him and those of his household apart from the Gentiles in whose midst he was living.”
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And this is obvious, because, when Israel spent forty years alone by themselves in the desert without mixing with any other nation, all those who were born in the desert were not circumcised. However, when Joshua brought them across the Jordan, they were circumcised and a second law of circumcision was made.
John Damascene· written before 749· ORTHODOX FAITH 4.25· Joshua 5:4patristic
Joshua 5:4, 1 more voice
Joshua 5:4
“Out of Egypt - This is to be restrained to such as were then above twenty years old, and such as were guilty of that rebellion, Num. xiv, 1-25, as it is expressed below, ver. 6.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 5:4evangelical
Joshua 5:5
“Rather, it was a continued token of God's displeasure against them, for their unbelief and murmuring: a token that they should never have the benefit of that promise, whereof circumcision was the seal.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 5:5evangelical
Joshua 5:6
“The people - The Hebrew word commonly signifies the Gentiles; so he calls them, to note that they were unworthy the name of Israelites. Shew them - That is, not give them so much as a sight of it, which he granted to Moses, much less the possession.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 5:6evangelical
Joshua 5:7
“To ratify the covenant between God and them, whereof circumcision was a sign and seal, to assure them that God would now make good his covenant, in giving them this land; and to oblige them to perform all the duties to which that covenant bound them, as soon as they came into Canaan, Exod. xii, 25 Lev. xxiii, 10 Num.”
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xv, 2.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 5:7evangelical
a.The covenant sign had lapsed for the whole of the wilderness, and the text says so plainly at verse 5, that those born by the way had not been circumcised. Nobody explains why it stopped, and the chapter gives the fact without a reason. The generation that carried the sign died in the desert and the generation that lacked it is the one taking the land, so the first act inside the country is to put the mark of Genesis 17 back on the people.
3. (vv. 8-9)
Joshua 5:8
“They abode - in the camp, till they were whole - This required several days; see the notes on Gen 34:24, Gen 34:25. Sir J.”
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Chardin informs us that when adults were circumcised they were obliged to keep their beds for about three weeks, or at least during that time they are not able to walk about but with great difficulty. The account he had from several renegadoes, who had received circumcision among the Mohammedans.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 5:8evangelical
Joshua 5:8, 1 more voice
Joshua 5:8
“But it has been calculated that the proportion between those already circumcised (under twenty when the doom was pronounced) and those to be circumcised, was one to four, and consequently the whole ceremony could easily have been performed in a day.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)· Joshua 5:8reformed
Joshua 5:9
All persons, even if they come from the law, even if they have learned through Moses, still have the reproach of Egypt in them, the reproach of sins. Who will be like Paul even according to the observance of the law? Just hear him saying, "According to the righteousness based upon the law, I lived without blame."
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Nevertheless, he himself publicly announces and says, "For we were even ourselves at some time foolish, unbelieving, wandering, enslaved to desires and various forms of pleasure, in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another."
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 5.6· Joshua 5:9patristic
Joshua 5:9, 3 more voices
Joshua 5:9
“The reproach of Egypt - i. e. “reproach proceeding from Egypt.” The expression probably refers to taunts actually uttered by the Egyptians against Israel, because of their long wanderings in the desert and failures to acquire a settlement in Canaan (compare Exo 32:12; Num 14:13-16; Deu 9:28; Deu 32:27).”
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These reproaches were now to end, for they had actually entered Canaan, and the restoration of the covenant was a pledge from God to accomplish what was begun for them.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 5:9evangelical
Joshua 5:9
“Gilgal--No trace either of the name or site is now to be found; but it was about two miles from Jericho [JOSEPHUS], and well suited for an encampment by the advantages of shade and water. It was the first place pronounced "holy" in the Holy Land (Jos 5:15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)· Joshua 5:9reformed
Joshua 5:9
“Or 3. because many of them lay under this reproach in Egypt, having wickedly neglected this duty there for worldly reasons; and others of them continued in the same shameful condition for many years in the wilderness. Gilgal - That is, rolling.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 5:9evangelical
a.They abide in the camp till they are whole, which leaves an entire army unable to fight, a few miles from a walled city, in enemy country. Genesis 34:25 records what happened the last time men were caught in that condition. Then God names the day, this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you, and the place is called Gilgal from the rolling.
B. Passover kept, and the manna ceases
1. (vv. 10-11)
Joshua 5:10
“Kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month - If the ceremony of circumcision was performed on the eleventh day of the month, as many think; and if the sore was at the worst on the thirteenth, and the passover was celebrated on the fourteenth, the people being then quite recovered…”
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it must have been rather a miraculous than a natural healing. We have already seen from the account of Sir J.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 5:10evangelical
Joshua 5:10, 1 more voice
Joshua 5:10
“The passover - Which was their third passover: the first was in Egypt, Exod. xii, 11-24, the second at Mount Sinai, Num. ix, 1-5, the third here; for in their wilderness travels, these and all other sacrifices were neglected, Amos v, 25.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 5:10evangelical
Joshua 5:11
“Old corn of the land - Rather “produce of the land,” the new grain just coming in at the time of the Passover. (So in Jos 5:12.) On the morrow after the passover - These words denote in Num 33:3 the 15th Nisan, but must here apparently mean the 16th.”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 5:11evangelical
Joshua 5:11, 1 more voice
Joshua 5:11
“Parched corn - Of that year's corn. which was most proper for that use. Self-same day - Having an eager desire to enjoy the fruits of the land.”
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And this corn came very seasonably; for after the passover, they were to keep the feast of unleavened bread, which they could not do, when they had nothing but manna to live upon.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 5:11evangelical
a.This is the third passover Scripture records after the night it was instituted, following Numbers 9:5 at Sinai, and the first kept inside the land. The date is the fourteenth at even, exactly as Exodus 12:6 set it, and the circumcision of the preceding verses is what made it lawful, since Exodus 12:48 bars the uncircumcised from eating it. They eat unleavened cakes and parched corn of the country, so the meal is made from the land itself.
2. (v. 12)
Joshua 5:12
“Indeed at that time, when the people went out of the land of Egypt, "they carried dough in their clothes." And when the dough had run out and they had no bread, God rained manna on them.”
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But when they came to the holy land and "took the fruit of the province of the palms, the manna ceased for them," and then they began to eat of the fruit of the land.In this manner, three kinds of food in general are described.
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.1· Joshua 5:12patristic
Joshua 5:12, 1 more voice
Joshua 5:12
“The manna ceased - Which God now withheld, to shew that Manna was not an ordinary production of nature, but an extraordinary and special gift of God to supply their necessity. And because God would not be prodigal of his favours, by working miracles where ordinary means were sufficient. The morrow - That is, on the seventeenth day.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 5:12evangelical
a.Exodus 16:35 said the manna would run until they came to a land inhabited, and this verse is where it stops. It stops the day after they eat the produce of Canaan, so the supply ends when the substitute arrives rather than before it. Forty years of bread that nobody sowed close without a word of ceremony, in half a sentence.
C. The prince of Jehovah's host, sword drawn
1. (vv. 13-14)
Joshua 5:13
“And so you must beware and exercise great care in order to discern with knowledge the kinds of visions, just as Joshua the son of Nun, when he saw a vision and knew there was temptation in it, immediately asked the one who appeared to him and said, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?"”
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So, then, the soul progresses when it comes to the place where it begins to distinguish between visions; and it is proved to be spiritual if it knows how to discern them all.
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.11· Joshua 5:13patristic
Joshua 5:13, 2 more voices
Joshua 5:13
“A man - See Gen 12:7, note; Gen 18:2, note. The appearance was that of God manifested in the Person of His Word. Hence, the command of Jos 5:15. That the appearance was not in a vision merely is clear from the fact that Joshua “went unto Him” and addressed Him.”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 5:13evangelical
Joshua 5:13
“In Jericho, that is, in the territory adjoining to it; whither he went to view those parts, and discern the fittest places for his attempt upon Jericho.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 5:13evangelical
Joshua 5:14
“What is it that Jesus [Joshua] teaches us through this? That, doubtless, which the apostle says: "Do not believe every spirit, but test if it is from God." Therefore, Jesus [Joshua] recognized not only something from God but that which is God; for certainly he would not have worshiped unless he had recognized God.”
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For who else is chief of the army of the powers of God except our Lord Jesus Christ?
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.2· Joshua 5:14patristic
Joshua 5:14, 1 more voice
Joshua 5:14
“By his acceptance of adoration here, which a created angel durst not admit of, Rev. xxii, 8, 9. Because the place was made holy by his presence, ver. 15, which was God's prerogative, Exod. iii, 5. Because he is called the Lord, Hebrew.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 5:14evangelical
a.Joshua asks whose side the stranger is on and gets Nay for an answer, which refuses the question rather than choosing between its halves. The reply is as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come, and Joshua falls on his face and worships, and is not stopped. Commentators divide over who this is, with many of the older writers reading a Christophany from the worship accepted and the holy ground of the next verse, and others reading a created angel; Revelation 22:8-9, where an angel refuses worship twice, is the strongest text on the other side and belongs in the same breath.
2. (v. 15)
Joshua 5:15
Now, grasp the mystical meaning of Holy Writ.
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As long as we are walking through the wilderness, it is necessary that we wear sandals to cover and protect our feet, but when we shall have entered the Land of Promise, we shall hear with Jesus [Joshua], the son of Nave [Nun]: "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place upon which you are standing is holy."
Jerome· written before 420· HOMILY ON THE EXODUS 91· Joshua 5:15patristic
Joshua 5:15, 1 more voice
Joshua 5:15
“Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, etc.”
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- These were the same words which the angel, on Mount Sinai, spoke to Moses; (see Exo 3:5-8); and from this it seems likely that it was the same person that appeared in both places: in the first, to encourage Moses to deliver the oppressed Israelites, and bring them to the promised land; in the second, to encourage Joshua in his arduous labor in expelling the ancient inhabitants, and establishing the people in the inheritance promised to their fathers.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 5:15evangelical
a.The words are Exodus 3:5 said again to a second man, and the reason given is the same, that the ground is holy. What made the ground holy at the bush was who was standing on it, and nothing else has changed here. Joshua gets no battle plan in this chapter, and the instruction he receives before Jericho is to take off his shoes.
This page carries no textual note on Joshua 5. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Jerome, HOMILY ON THE EXODUS 91; John Damascene, ORTHODOX FAITH 4.25; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria.
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