Joshua 5

¹ When all the kings of the Amorites in the country west of Jordan and all the kings of the Canaanites in the coastal region heard that Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed it, their hearts grew faint and their spirit failed them as the Israelites drew near.

² At this time Yahweh said to Joshua, ‘Make knives of flint and circumcise the Israelites again’.

³ Joshua made knives of flint and circumcised the Israelites on the Hill of Foreskins.

⁴ The reason why Joshua circumcised them was this. All the males of the people who had come out of Egypt of age to bear arms had died in the wilderness on their journey after leaving Egypt.

⁵ Now all the people who came out had been circumcised; but those who had been born in the wilderness – in the journey through it when Egypt was left behind – none of these had been circumcised,

⁶ because for forty years the Israelites travelled through the wilderness, until all the nation had died out, that is, the men who had come out of Egypt of age to bear arms; they had not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, and Yahweh had sworn to them never to let them see the land that he had sworn to our fathers to give us, a land where milk and honey flow.

⁷ But in place of these he set their sons, and these it was that Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised, since they could not be circumcised on the journey.

⁸ When the circumcising of the whole nation was over, they stayed to rest in the camp till they were well again;

⁹ and Yahweh said to Joshua, ‘Today I have taken the shame of Egypt away from you’. Hence that place has been called Gilgal until now.[*a]

¹⁰ The Israelites pitched their camp at Gilgal and kept the Passover there on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening in the plain of Jericho.

¹¹ On the morrow of the Passover they tasted the produce of that country, unleavened bread and roasted ears of corn, that same day.

¹² From that time, from their first eating of the produce of that country, the manna stopped falling. And having manna no longer, the Israelites fed from that year onwards on what the land of Canaan yielded.

¹³ When Joshua was near Jericho, he raised his eyes and saw a man standing there before him, grasping a naked sword. Joshua walked towards him and said to him, ‘Are you with us or with our enemies?’

¹⁴ He answered, ‘No, I am captain of the army of Yahweh, and now I come…’ Joshua fell on his face to the ground and worshipped him and said, ‘What are my Lord’s commands to his servant?’

¹⁵ The captain of the army of Yahweh answered Joshua, ‘Take your sandals off your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy’. And Joshua obeyed.