Joshua 4:1--5:15

Israel Commemorates the Crossing

4:1 When the entire nation was on the other side, ¹  the Lord told Joshua, 4:2 “Select for yourselves twelve men from the people, one per tribe. 4:3 Instruct them, ‘Pick up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests ²  stand firmly, and carry them over with you and put them in the place where you camp tonight.’”

4:4 Joshua summoned the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one per tribe. 4:5 Joshua told them, “Go in front of the ark of the Lord your God to the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to put a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the Israelite tribes. 4:6 The stones ³  will be a reminder to you. ⁴  When your children ask someday, ‘Why are these stones important to you?’ 4:7 tell them how the water of the Jordan stopped flowing ⁵  before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the water of the Jordan stopped flowing. ⁶  These stones will be a lasting memorial for the Israelites.”

4:8 The Israelites did just as Joshua commanded. They picked up twelve stones, according to the number of the Israelite tribes, from the middle of the Jordan as the Lord had instructed Joshua. They carried them over with them to the camp and put them there. 4:9 Joshua also set up twelve stones ⁷  in the middle of the Jordan in the very place where the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stood. They remain there to this very day.

4:10 Now the priests carrying the ark of the covenant were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people was accomplished, in accordance with all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people went across quickly, 4:11 and when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed as the people looked on. ⁸  4:12 The Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed for battle ahead of the Israelites, just as Moses had instructed them. 4:13 About forty thousand battle-ready troops ⁹  marched past the Lord to fight ¹⁰  on the plains of Jericho. ¹¹  4:14 That day the Lord brought honor to Joshua before all Israel. They respected ¹²  him all his life, ¹³  just as they had respected ¹⁴  Moses.

4:15 The Lord told Joshua, 4:16 “Instruct the priests carrying the ark of the covenantal laws ¹⁵  to come up from the Jordan.” 4:17 So Joshua instructed the priests, “Come up from the Jordan!” 4:18 The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the middle of the Jordan, and as soon as they set foot on dry land, ¹⁶  the water of the Jordan flowed again and returned to flood stage. ¹⁷ 

4:19 The people went up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month ¹⁸  and camped in Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. ¹⁹  4:20 Now Joshua set up in Gilgal the ²⁰  twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan. 4:21 He told the Israelites, “When your children someday ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones represent?’ ²¹  4:22 explain ²²  to your children, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan River ²³  on dry ground.’ 4:23 For the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan before you while you crossed over. It was just like when the Lord your God dried up the Red Sea before us while we crossed it. ²⁴  4:24 He has done this so ²⁵  all the nations ²⁶  of the earth might recognize the Lord’s power ²⁷  and so you might always obey ²⁸  the Lord your God.”

5:1 When all the Amorite kings on the west side of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites while they ²⁹  crossed, they lost their courage and could not even breathe for fear of the Israelites. ³⁰ 

A New Generation is Circumcised

5:2 At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites once again.” ³¹  5:3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites on the Hill of the Foreskins. ³²  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. ³³  5:5 Now ³⁴  all the men ³⁵  who left were circumcised, but all the sons ³⁶  born on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt were uncircumcised. 5:6 Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. ³⁷  For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them, ³⁸  a land rich in ³⁹  milk and honey. 5:7 He replaced them with their sons, ⁴⁰  whom Joshua circumcised. They were uncircumcised; their fathers had not circumcised them along the way. 5:8 When all the men ⁴¹  had been circumcised, they stayed there in the camp until they had healed. 5:9 The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have taken away ⁴²  the disgrace ⁴³  of Egypt from you.” So that place is called Gilgal ⁴⁴  even to this day.

5:10 So the Israelites camped in Gilgal and celebrated the Passover in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho. ⁴⁵  5:11 They ate some of the produce of the land the day after the Passover, including unleavened bread and roasted grain. ⁴⁶  5:12 The manna stopped appearing the day they ate ⁴⁷  some of the produce of the land; the Israelites never ate manna again. ⁴⁸ 

Israel Conquers Jericho

5:13 When Joshua was near ⁴⁹  Jericho, ⁵⁰  he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him holding a drawn sword. ⁵¹  Joshua approached him and asked him, “Are you on our side or allied with our enemies?” ⁵²  5:14 He answered, ⁵³  “Truly I am the commander of the Lord’s army. ⁵⁴  Now I have arrived!” ⁵⁵  Joshua bowed down with his face to the ground ⁵⁶  and asked, “What does my master want to say to his servant?” 5:15 The commander of the Lord’s army answered Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, because the place where you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.

[4:1]  ¹ tn Heb “And when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.”

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “the feet of the priests.”

[4:6]  ³ tn Heb “that this may be”; the referent of “this” (the twelve stones) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “in order that this might be a sign among you.”

[4:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “were cut off from before.”

[4:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “how the waters descending from above stood still.”

[4:9]  ⁷ tn Here “also” has been supplied in the translation to make it clear (as indicated by v. 20) that these are not the same stones the men took from the river bed.

[4:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the presence of the people.”

[4:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “men equipped for battle.”

[4:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for war.”

[4:13]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[4:14]  ¹² tn Heb “feared.”

[4:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “all the days of his life.”

[4:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “had feared.”

[4:16]  ¹⁵ tn Traditionally, “the ark of the testimony,” another name for the ark of the covenant. The Hebrew term עֵדוּת (’edut, “testimony” or “witness”) here refers to the Mosaic covenant and the body of stipulations contained within it (see HALOT 2:791).

[4:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and the soles of the feet of the priests were brought up to the dry land.”

[4:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and went as formerly over their banks.”

[4:19]  ¹⁸ sn The first month was the month Abib (= late March-early April in the modern calendar). The Passover in Egypt also occurred on the tenth day of the first month (Exod 12:2; 13:4).

[4:19]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[4:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “these,” referring specifically to the twelve stones mentioned in vv. 3-7.

[4:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “What are these stones?”

[4:22]  ²² tn Heb “make known.”

[4:22]  ²³ tn Heb “crossed this Jordan”; the word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied to clarify the meaning.

[4:23]  ²⁴ tn Heb “just as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea when he dried [it] up before us while we crossed over.”

[4:24]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in order that.”

[4:24]  ²⁶ tn Or “peoples.”

[4:24]  ²⁷ tn Heb “know the hand of the Lord that it is strong.”

[4:24]  ²⁸ tn Heb “fear.”

[5:1]  ²⁹ tc Another textual tradition has, “while we crossed.”

[5:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “their heart[s] melted and there was no longer in them breathe because of the sons of Israel.”

[5:2]  ³¹ 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.

[5:3]  ³² 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.

[5:4]  ³³ 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.”

[5:5]  ³⁴ tn Or “indeed.”

[5:5]  ³⁵ tn Heb “people.”

[5:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “all the people.”

[5:6]  ³⁷ tn Heb “all the nation, the men of war who went out from Egypt, who did not listen to the voice of the Lord, came to an end.”

[5:6]  ³⁸ tn Some Hebrew mss, as well as the Syriac version, support this reading. Most ancient witnesses read “us.”

[5:6]  ³⁹ tn Heb “flowing with.”

[5:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “their sons he raised up in their place.”

[5:8]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “nation.”

[5:9]  ⁴² tn Heb “rolled away.”

[5:9]  ⁴³ sn One might take the disgrace of Egypt as a reference to their uncircumcised condition (see Gen 34:14), but the generation that left Egypt was circumcised (see v. 5). It more likely refers to the disgrace they experienced in Egyptian slavery. When this new generation reached the promised land and renewed their covenantal commitment to the Lord by submitting to the rite of circumcision, the Lord’s deliverance of his people from slavery, which had begun with the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea, reached its climax. See T. C. Butler, Joshua (WBC), 59.

[5:9]  ⁴⁴ sn The name Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew verb “roll away” (גַּלַל, galal).

[5:10]  ⁴⁵ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[5:11]  ⁴⁶ tn The Hebrew text adds, “on this same day.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has not been translated.

[5:12]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the day after, when they ate.” The present translation assumes this means the day after the Passover, though it is possible it refers to the day after they began eating the land’s produce.

[5:12]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and the sons of Israel had no more manna.”

[5:13]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “in.”

[5:13]  ⁵⁰ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[5:13]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “he lifted up his eyes and looked. And look, a man was standing in front of him, and his sword was drawn in his hand.” The verb הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) invites the reader to view the scene through Joshua’s eyes. By calling the stranger “a man,” the author reflects Joshua’s perspective. The text shortly reveals his true identity (vv. 14-15).

[5:13]  ⁵² tn Heb “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

[5:14]  ⁵³ tc Heb “He said, “Neither.” An alternative reading is לוֹ (lo, “[He said] to him”; cf. NEB). This reading is supported by many Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX and Syriac versions. The traditional reading of the MT (לֹא, lo’, “no, neither”) is probably the product of aural confusion (the two variant readings sound the same in Hebrew). Although followed by a number of modern translations (cf. NIV, NRSV), this reading is problematic, for the commander of the Lord’s army would hardly have declared himself neutral.

[5:14]  ⁵⁴ sn The Lord’s heavenly army, like an earthly army, has a commander who leads the troops. For the phrase שַׂר־צְבָא (sar-tsÿva’, “army commander”) in the human sphere, see among many other references Gen 21:22, 32; 26:26; Judg 4:2, 7; 1 Sam 12:9.

[5:14]  ⁵⁵ sn The commander’s appearance seems to be for Joshua’s encouragement. Joshua could now lead Israel into battle knowing that the Lord’s invisible army would ensure victory.

[5:14]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “Joshua fell on his face to the ground and bowed down.”