Joshua 5:4

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.

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 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.

6 For the children of Yisra'el walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, even the men of war who came forth out of Mitzrayim, were consumed, because they didn't listen to the voice of the LORD: to whom the LORD swore that he wouldn't let them see the land which the LORD swore to their fathers that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.