Joshua 5:3

3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.^[a]

Joshua 5:3 in Other Translations

3 And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the entire male population of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

3 So Joshua made stone knives and circumcised the People of Israel at Foreskins Hill.

3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelite men at Gibeath-haaraloth.

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 Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

2 At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.”

3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.

4 Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt.

5 All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not.

Footnotes

• [a]. "Gibeath Haaraloth" means "the hill of foreskins."