Joshua 5:3

3 Yehoshua made himself flint knives, and circumcised the children of Yisra'el at the hill of `Aralot.

Joshua 5:3 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 5:3

And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children
of Israel
Not that Joshua circumcised them himself, any more than he made the knives himself, but he ordered both to be done, and took care that they were done. And as any that had skill might make the knives, so might any circumcise; circumcision was not restrained to any order of men, not to the priests and Levites, but any might perform it; so that though the number to be circumcised was great, it might soon be finished: and this was done

at the hill of the foreskins;
as the place was afterward called from hence; these being heaped up one upon another, made a hill of them, as the Jews say ^F25, being covered with dust. This circumcision performed by Joshua, or his orders, was typical of the spiritual circumcision without hands, which those that believe in Jesus, the antitype of Joshua, partake of.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c. 29.) Jarchi in loc.

Joshua 5:3 In-Context

1 It happened, when all the kings of the Amori, who were beyond the Yarden westward, and all the kings of the Kana`anim, who were by the sea, heard how that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Yarden from before the children of Yisra'el, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Yisra'el.

2 At that time the LORD said to Yehoshua, Make you flint knives, and circumcise again the children of Yisra'el the second time.

3 Yehoshua made himself flint knives, and circumcised the children of Yisra'el at the hill of `Aralot.

4 This is the cause why Yehoshua did circumcise: all the people who came forth out of Mitzrayim, who were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came forth out of Mitzrayim.

5 For all the people who came out were circumcised; but all the people who were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Mitzrayim, they had not circumcised.