Joshua 5:3

3 fecit quod iusserat Dominus et circumcidit filios Israhel in colle Praeputiorum

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 postquam ergo audierunt omnes reges Amorreorum qui habitabant trans Iordanem ad occidentalem plagam et cuncti reges Chanaan qui propinqua possidebant Magno mari loca quod siccasset Dominus fluenta Iordanis coram filiis Israhel donec transirent dissolutum est cor eorum et non remansit in eis spiritus timentium introitum filiorum Israhel

2 eo tempore ait Dominus ad Iosue fac tibi cultros lapideos et circumcide secundo filios Israhel

3 fecit quod iusserat Dominus et circumcidit filios Israhel in colle Praeputiorum

4 haec autem causa est secundae circumcisionis omnis populus qui egressus est ex Aegypto generis masculini universi bellatores viri mortui sunt in deserto per longissimos viae circuitus

5 qui omnes circumcisi erant populus autem qui natus est in deserto