Joshua 5:1-4

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 ¹  crossed, they lost their courage and could not even breathe for fear of the Israelites. ² 

A New Generation is Circumcised

5:2 At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites once again.” ³  5:3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites on the Hill of the Foreskins. 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. ⁵ 

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

[5:1]  ² tn Heb “their heart[s] melted and there was no longer in them breathe because of the sons of Israel.”

[5:2]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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.”