Joshua 5:7-15

7 So it was ¹their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.

9 And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the ²reproach of Egypt from you." And so the name of that place is called ³Gilgal^[a] to this day.

First Passover in Canaan

10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover ⁴on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.

11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.

12 And ⁵the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

The Commander of the Lord's Army

13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, ⁶a man was standing before him ⁷with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?"

14 And he said, "No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come." And Joshua ⁸fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, "What does my lord say to his servant?"

15 And the commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, ⁹"Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

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Joshua 5:7-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 5

The Canaanites being dispirited on the passage of the children of Israel through Jordan, Jos 5:1; Joshua is ordered to circumcise such of the people of Israel that were uncircumcised, Jos 5:2-9; in order to their eating of the passover, which was now to be kept, Jos 5:10; and they being now provided with corn sufficient, the manna ceased, Jos 5:11,12; and there appeared to Joshua a divine Person, in an human form, to encourage and direct him what to do in the conquest of the land, and particularly Jericho, Jos 5:13-15.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 9

1. Numbers 14:31; Deuteronomy 1:39
2. Genesis 34:14
3. Joshua 4:19
4. Exodus 12:6; Numbers 9:5
5. Exodus 16:35
6. Genesis 18:2; Genesis 32:24; Acts 1:10; [Exodus 23:20, 23]
7. Numbers 22:23, 31
8. Genesis 17:3
9. Exodus 3:5; Acts 7:33

Footnotes 1

[a]. Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew for to roll

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.