Joshua 5:4

4 This is the reason Joshua circumcised them: All the soldiers had died on the way through the desert after they left 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 spoke to Joshua, "Make flint knives, and circumcise the men of Israel."

3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the men of Israel at the Hill of Circumcision.

4 This is the reason Joshua circumcised them: All the soldiers had died on the way through the desert after they left Egypt.

5 The men who left Egypt had been circumcised. However, the men born later, on the way through the desert, were not circumcised.

6 For 40 years the Israelites wandered through the desert until all their soldiers who left Egypt died. They died because they disobeyed the LORD. The LORD swore that he would not let them see this land flowing with milk and honey which he had sworn to give our ancestors.