Joshua 5:6

_NOW 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._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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....

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.

FOR THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WALKED FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS,.... Wanting a few days, the round number is given: not forty two, as the Septuagint version: TILL ALL THE PEOPLE [THAT WERE] MEN OF WAR, WHICH CAME OUT OF EGYPT, WERE CONSUMED; all that were above twenty years of age, excepting Joshua and Caleb: BECAUSE THEY OBEYED NOT THE VOICE OF THE LORD; but murmured against him, and against his servants, and particularly against Aaron, being the high priest; and chiefly because of the report of the spies, and their murmurs then, which so incensed the Lord against them, that he threatened them with an entire consumption of their carcasses, and which accordingly was fulfilled, to which the following clause refers: UNTO WHOM THE LORD SWARE, THAT HE WOULD NOT SHOW THEM THE LAND WHICH THE LORD SWARE UNTO THEIR FATHERS THAT HE WOULD GIVE US, A LAND THAT FLOWETH WITH MILK AND HONEY; see...

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

PEOPLE. nation. Some codices, with two early printed editions, read "generation", OBEYED NOT. hearkened not unto....

_forty years_ See Numbers 14:33; Deuteronomy 1:3; Deuteronomy 2:7; Deuteronomy 2:14. _a land that floweth with milk and honey_ For this expression compare Exodus 3:8; Exodus 3:17; Exodus 13:5; Leviticus 20:24;...

_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...