Joshua

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Joshua 5 – Skeptic's Annotated Bible answered

A response and reply to the notes on Joshua 5 in the Skeptic's Annotated Bible (SAB).

King James Version

SAB comment

My comment

1 And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

2 At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.

(5:2-3) "The LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins."
At God's command, Joshua makes some knives and circumcises "again the children of Israel the second time" (ouch!) at the "hill of the foreskins."

It's not very clear, but does the author of the SAB read here that the Israelites were circumcised twice? The meaning is that this is the second occasion a mass circumcision happened. The Bible doesn't tell us when the first one happened, but quite possibly in the second year they had come out of Egypt, before eating the passover, see Num. 9:1-2. All males circumcised at that time and over twenty years in age had passed away, see Num. 26:65.
A common explanation is that as the Israelites were in the desert, and never knew when they had to move again they might not have practised circumcision from the first until now, so that's why there was a general circumcision at this time.
But the, in my opinion, correct explanation is given by Professor Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg in Dissertations on the Genuineness of the Pentateuch, volume 2, page 14:

Circumcision was not omitted throughout the whole of the march, but only from the time when the exclusion of the existing generation from the promised land was declared. It was the external manifestation of the curse. Where the covenant was suspended there also the signs and sacrament of the covenant could no longer be administered.

3 And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

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.

5 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.

6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

(5:6) "The children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness."
It took the Israelites 40 years to travel from Egypt to Canaan, yet such a journey, even at that time, would have taken no more than a few weeks.

See Ex. 16:35.

7 And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.

8 And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole.

9 And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

10 And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.

11 And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.

12 And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?

14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?

(5:14) "And Joshua fell on his face." (FOF)

15 And the captain of the LORD’S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.

(5:15) "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot."
The "captain of the Lord's host" visits Joshua and delivers the all-important message: "Take your shoe off."

This was the sign of deep respect in the cultures of those days, and I have heard it still is in the Middle East. Why this is laughable I have no idea.