Joshua 5:4

_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._ This is the cause why Joshua did circumcise. The omission to circumcise the children born in the wilderness might have been owing to the incessant movements of the people; but it is most generally thought that the nation, being regarded as for a time disowned by God, was forbidden to take the sign of the covenant, to neglect which in other circumstances would have been visited with the severest penalties. The true cause was a temporary suspension of the covenant with the unbelieving race, who, being rejected of the Lord, and excommunicated, were thrust back into the standing-ground of the unclean (Josephus, 'Antiquities,' b. 5:, ch. i., sec. 4), and doomed to perish in the wilderness, and whos...

1-9 How dreadful is their case, who see the wrath of God advancing towards them, without being able to turn it aside, or escape it! Such will be the horrible situation of the wicked; nor can words express the anguish of their feelings, or the greatness of their terror. Oh that they would now take warning, and before it be too late, flee for refuge to lay hold upon that hope set before them in the gospel! God impressed these fears on the Canaanites, and dispirited them. This gave a short rest to the Israelites, and circumcision rolled away the reproach of Egypt. They were hereby owned to be the free-born children of God, having the seal of the covenant. When God glorifies himself in perfecting the salvation of his people, he not only silences all enemies, but rolls back their reproaches upon themselves....

Verse Joshua 5:4. _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. Owing to their unsettled state, God appears to have dispensed, for the time being, with this rite; but as they were about to celebrate another passover, it was necessary that all the males should be circumcised; for without this they could not be considered within the covenant, and could not keep the passover, which was the _seal_ of that covenant. As baptism is generally understood to have succeeded to circumcision, and the holy e...

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 Joshua 5:6 is a round number, and the statement in the latter part of Joshua 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 Sin

EXPOSITION THE CIRCUMCISION.— JOSHUA 5:1 WHICH WERE ON THE SIDE OF JORDAN WESTWARD. A large portion of the territory of the Amorites had, as we have seen (Joshua 3:10), been already conquered. The remaining tribes on the other side Jordan were apprehensive of the same fate. For "on the side," the original has "across." Having hitherto written of Israel as on the eastern side of Jordan, he continues the same expression after he has narrated the crossing. But writing as he did on the west side of Jordan, and for readers the vast majority of whom were on the west side of Jordan, he adds the expression "westward" (literally, _seaward_)_ _to prevent any possibility of mistake. Until we were passed over.

AND THIS [IS] THE CAUSE WHY JOSHUA DID CIRCUMCISE,.... Or the reason of the command given him to circumcise the children of Israel at this time, namely, what follows: ALL THE PEOPLE THAT CAME OUT OF EGYPT [THAT WERE] MALES, [EVEN] ALL THE MEN OF WAR; meaning such that were twenty years old, and upwards: DIED IN THE WILDERNESS, BY THE WAY, AFTER THEY CAME OUT OF EGYPT; not directly, but in a course of forty years, as they journeyed through the wilderness; this is to be understood with an exception of Joshua, Caleb, Eleazar, c. but then there was a large number who were under twenty years of age, that came out of Egypt, and were now living....

5. AT GILGAL CHAPTER 5 _ 1. The terrified enemies (Joshua 5:1)_ 2. Circumcision commanded and executed (Joshua 5:2) 3. The Passover kept (Joshua 5:10) 4. The old corn of the land (Joshua 5:11) 5. The captain of Jehovah's host (Joshua 5:13) The events at Gilgal are of much interest. Jehovah had brought His people over Jordan. All His promises were kept. He had promised to deliver them out of Egypt and to bring them into the land of Canaan. All is now accomplished. The wilderness is behind them and they face the marvellous

Joshua Circumcises the Israelites. Here we have an interesting but quite unhistorical account of the institution of circumcision. Circumcision (pp. 83, 99f.) is a prehistoric rite practised by many nations in antiquity and by the South Sea Islanders, African, and Australian aborigines in the present day. Here we have an attempt to date its origin in Israel from the entry into Palestine, while in Genesis 17* (P) its origin is dated from the command given by God to Abraham. The endeavours of subsequent scribes to bring the two accounts into conformity with one another are seen in the insertion of Joshua 5:3. The original narrative is probably to be found in Joshua 5:2 and Joshua 5:9. Joshua is ordered to circumcise the nation by Yahweh, who says, Thi

MEN. Hebrew, plural of _'ish or 'enosh._ App-14....

_VER._ 4-7. _AND THIS IS THE CAUSE,_ &C.— The reason is clearly expressed in the text. Excepting Joshua and Caleb, all the six hundred thousand fighting men, who came out of Egypt, had died during the forty years that the people had dwelt in the desarts of Arabia; and during this interval of time they had neglected to circumcise the male children which were born there. But whence this negligence? It was not out of contempt, since the Scripture nowhere reproaches the Israelites on that account. But the learned have given us the following reasons for this long interruption of circumcision. I. That the end of the ceremonial laws, especially circumcision, being to distinguish the Jews from the idolatrous nations, it was unnecessary to circumcise them in the desart, where it was not possible for them to mix with other people. This was the opinion of Theodoret and St. Jerome among the ancients...