5:2 At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites once again.” 1 5:3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites on the Hill of the Foreskins. 2 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. 3 5:5 Now 4 all the men 5 who left were circumcised, but all the sons 6 born on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt were uncircumcised.
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 Or “Gibeath Haaraloth.” This name means “Hill of the Foreskins.” Many modern translations simply give the Hebrew name, although an explanatory note giving the meaning of the name is often included.
3 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.”
4 tn Or “indeed.”
5 tn Heb “people.”
6 tn Heb “all the people.”