Joshua 5:2

A New Generation is Circumcised

5:2 At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites once again.” ¹ 

Joshua 5:4

5:4 This is why Joshua had to circumcise them: All the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt died on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt. ² 

Joshua 5:7

5:7 He replaced them with their sons, ³  whom Joshua circumcised. They were uncircumcised; their fathers had not circumcised them along the way.

¹ tn Heb “return, circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” The Hebrew term שׁוּב (shuv, “return”) is used here in an adverbial sense to indicate the repetition of an action.

² tn Heb “All the people who went out from Egypt, the males, all the men of war, died in the desert in the way when they went out from Egypt.”

³ tn Heb “their sons he raised up in their place.”