Joshua 5:4

4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: ¹all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt.

Joshua 5:4 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 5:4

And this [is] the cause why Joshua did circumcise
Or the reason of the command given him to circumcise the children of Israel at this time, namely, what follows:

all the people that came out of Egypt [that were] males, [even] all
the men of war;
meaning such that were twenty years old, and upwards:

died in the wilderness, by the way, after they came out of Egypt;
not directly, but in a course of forty years, as they journeyed through the wilderness; this is to be understood with an exception of Joshua, Caleb, Eleazar but then there was a large number who were under twenty years of age, that came out of Egypt, and were now living.

Joshua 5:4 In-Context

2 At that time the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time."

3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

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

5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.

6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD; the LORD swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Cross References

• 1. Numbers 14:29; Numbers 26:64, 65; Deuteronomy 2:16; Psalms 106:26; 1 Corinthians 10:5; Hebrews 3:17