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Joshua 5:4

in Joshua 5

Now this is why Joshua circumcised them: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of war—had died on the journey in the wilderness after they had left Egypt.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

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

KJV

And 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.

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This verse in Joshua 5

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

John Damascene

ORTHODOX FAITH 4.25 · Written before 749.

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. 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.

This site's exposition

Make flint knives

on Joshua 5:2-7

The covenant sign had lapsed through the wilderness. The generation that carried the sign died in the desert, and the one that lacked it is taking the land. So the first act inside the country is to put the mark of Genesis 17 back on the people.

This site's exposition

All those who came out of Egypt

Barnes works out who still bore the sign. Anyone under twenty at Kadesh would have been circumcised in Egypt, and he reckons more than a quarter of a million were still alive. Wesley limits the all of this verse to the men of war condemned in Numbers 14.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

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.
And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

This is the cause why Joshua did circumcise - The text here explains itself. Before the Israelites left Egypt all the males were circumcised; and some learned men think that all those who were born during their encampment at Sinai were circumcised also, because there they celebrated the passover; but after that time, during the whole of their stay in the wilderness, there were none circumcised till they entered into the promised land.
Of the whole nation those only were already circumcised at the time of the passage of the Jordan who had been under twenty years of age at the time of the complaining and consequent rejection at Kadesh (compare the marginal reference). These would have been circumcised before they left Egypt, and there would still survive of them more than a quarter of a million of thirty-eight years old and upward. The statements of these verses are of a general kind. The “forty years” of Jos 5:6 is a round number, and the statement in the latter part of Jos 5:5 cannot be strictly accurate. For there must have been male children born in the wilderness during the first year after the Exodus, and these must have been circumcised before the celebration of the Passover at Sinai in the first month of the second year (compare Num 9:1-5, and Exo 12:48). The statements of the verses are, however, sufficiently close to the facts for the purpose in hand; namely, to render a reason for the general circumcising which is here recorded. The reason why circumcision was omitted in the wilderness, was that the sentence of Num 14:28 ff placed the whole nation for the time under a ban; and that the discontinuance of circumcision, and the consequent omission of the Passover, was a consequence and a token of that ban. The rejection was not, indeed, total, for the children of the complainers were to enter into the rest; nor final, for when the children had borne the punishment of the fathers’ sins for the appointed years, and the complainers were dead, then it was to be removed, as now by Joshua. But for the time the covenant was abrogated, though God’s purpose to restore it was from the first made known, and confirmed by the visible marks of His favor which He still vouchsafed to bestow during the wandering. […]

The words behind it

18 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְזֶ֥הand this

    vezehH2088 →1180 times

  • הַדָּבָ֖ר[is] the reason

    hadavarH1697 →1440 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־why

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • מָ֣לhe circumcised

    malH4135 →37 times

  • יְהוֹשֻׁ֑עַJoshua

    yehoshua'H3091 →218 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • הָעָ֣םthe people

    haamH5971 →1873 times

  • הַיֹּצֵא֩which had come out

    haiyotze'H3318 →1067 times

  • מִמִּצְרַ֨יִםfrom Egypt

    mimitzrayimH4714 →641 times

  • הַזְּכָרִ֜יםthe males

    hazekharimH2145 →

  • כֹּ֣ל׀all

    kolH3605 →5413 times

  • אַנְשֵׁ֣י[the] men of

    ʾansheiH582 →566 times

  • הַמִּלְחָמָ֗ה<the> war

    hamilchamahH4421 →320 times

  • מֵ֤תוּthey had died

    metuH4191 →839 times

  • בַמִּדְבָּר֙in the wilderness

    vamidbarH4057 →270 times

  • בַּדֶּ֔רֶךְon the way

    baderekhH1870 →707 times

  • בְּצֵאתָ֖םwhen went out they

    betzetamH3318 →1067 times

  • מִמִּצְרָֽיִם׃from Egypt

    mimitzrayimH4714 →641 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

7 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

1 Corinthians 10:5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.3 worksDeuteronomy 2:16Now when all the fighting men among the people had died,3 worksNumbers 26:64–65Among all these, however, there was not one who had been numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai.3 worksNumbers 14:22not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times—2 worksDeuteronomy 2:14The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Brook of Zered was thirty-eight years, until that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.2 worksHebrews 3:17–19And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?2 works
The other 1 cross-references, with their words ▾
Genesis 17:10This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Corinthians 10:5

    Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

    it leads to

    • Numbers 26:64–65

      Among all these, however, there was not one who had been numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Hebrews 3:17

      And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

    • Jude 1:5

      Although you are fully aware of this, I want to remind you that after Jesus had delivered His people out of the land of Egypt, He destroyed those who did not believe.

    • Numbers 14:37

      those men who had brought out the bad report about the land—were struck down by a plague before the LORD.

    • Numbers 14:11–12

      And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 2:14

    The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Brook of Zered was thirty-eight years, until that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had…

    it leads to

    • Numbers 14:28–35

      So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.

  • Through

    Numbers 14:22

    not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times—

    it leads to

    • Genesis 31:7

      And although he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, God has not allowed him to harm me.

    • Job 19:3

      Ten times now you have reproached me; you shamelessly mistreat me.

Where this verse is studied

About Joshua

Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon, John Martin, 1816, National Gallery of Art. Public domain.
Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon, John Martin, 1816, National Gallery of Art. Public domain.
Joshua: the study guide →Read Joshua 5 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Damascene, ORTHODOX FAITH 4.25; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Joshua 5 →