Joshua 5:6

6 For forty years the {Israelites} traveled in the wilderness until all the nation, the warriors that left Egypt, perished, because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. To them Yahweh swore that they would not see the land that he swore to their ancestors to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Joshua 5:6 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 5:6

For the children of Israel walked forty years in the
wilderness
Wanting a few days, the round number is given: not forty two, as the Septuagint version:

till all the people [that were] men of war, which came out of Egypt,
were consumed;
all that were above twenty years of age, excepting Joshua and Caleb:

because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord;
but murmured against him, and against his servants, and particularly against Aaron, being the high priest; and chiefly because of the report of the spies, and their murmurs then, which so incensed the Lord against them, that he threatened them with an entire consumption of their carcasses, and which accordingly was fulfilled, to which the following clause refers:

unto whom the Lord sware, that he would not show them the land which
the Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that
floweth with milk and honey;
see ( Numbers 14:23 Numbers 14:24 ) .

Joshua 5:6 In-Context

4 This [is] the reason why Joshua circumcised all the people: all the males who went out from Egypt, all the warriors, died in the wilderness as they went out from Egypt {on the journey}.

5 For all the people who left were circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness {on the journey} [after] they left from Egypt were not circumcised.

6 For forty years the {Israelites} traveled in the wilderness until all the nation, the warriors that left Egypt, perished, because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. To them Yahweh swore that they would not see the land that he swore to their ancestors to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

7 And it was their children [whom] he raised in their place that Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised {on the journey}.

8 And it happened, when all the nation had finished circumcising, they remained where they were in the camp until they recovered.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [b]. Hebrew "Yahweh"
• [c]. Or "fathers"