Joshua 5:5

5 For all the people that came out were circumcised; but all the people that were born in the wilderness on the way, after they came out of Egypt, [them] had they not circumcised.

Joshua 5:5 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 5:5

Now all the people that came out were circumcised
All that came out of Egypt, and males, were circumcised, whether under or above twenty years of age; for though it is possible all were circumcised before they came out of Egypt, which favours the opinion of Dr. Lightfoot, that they might be circumcised during the three nights' darkness of the Egyptians, when they could take no advantage of it, as Levi and Simeon did of the Shechemites; and which seems more probable than that it should be on the night they came out of Egypt, when many must have been unfit for travelling, and seems preferable to that of their being circumcised at Mount Sinai, which was a year after their coming out of Egypt:

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;
the reasons of which neglect; (See Gill on Joshua 5:2). The phrase, "by the way", seems to point at the true reason of it, at least to countenance the reason there given, which was on account of their journey; that is, their stay at any place being uncertain and precarious; so the Jews say {z}, because of the affliction or trouble of journeying, the Israelites did not circumcise their children. This is to be understood of all males only born in the wilderness, they only being the subjects of circumcision.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c. 29.)

Joshua 5:5 In-Context

3 And Joshua made him stone-knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of Araloth.

4 And this is the cause why Joshua circumcised [them]: all the people that had come out of Egypt, the males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they came out of Egypt.

5 For all the people that came out were circumcised; but all the people that were born in the wilderness on the way, after they came out of Egypt, [them] had they not circumcised.

6 For the children of Israel had walked forty years in the wilderness, till the whole nation of men of war had perished who had come out of Egypt, who had not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah; to whom Jehovah had sworn that he would not show them the land which Jehovah had sworn unto their fathers that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

7 And their sons [whom] he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them on the way.