Joshua 5

5 1 And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were beyond Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard how that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

2. At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee knives of flint, and circumcise again the 3 children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him knives of flint, and circumcised the 4 children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: all the people that came forth out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, 5 died in the wilderness by the way, after they came forth out of Egypt. For all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the 6 way as they came forth out of Egypt, they had not circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the nation, even the men of war which came forth out of Egypt, were consumed, because they hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD swore that he would not let them see the land which the LORD swore unto 7 their fathers that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them did Joshua circumcise: for they were uncircumcised, 8 because they had not circumcised them by the way. And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the nation, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. 9 And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of that place was called Gilgal, unto this day. 10 And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal; and they kept the passover on the four- 11 teenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn [produce] of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes and parched corn, 12 in the selfsame day. And the manna ceased on the morrow, after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. 13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and 14 Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? 15 And the captain of the LORD’s host said unto Joshua, Put off thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.

5:1. Amorites, Canaanites. Under the Am- orites and Canaanites are here included the sev- eral other nations of Canaan, as the Hittites, Hivites, etc., these two being the most power- ful nations. The Amorites, on the side of Jordan “westward,” are distinguished from the Amorites eastward of Jordan, whom the Israel- ites had subdued already. The Canaanites “by the sea,” that is, by the Mediterranean Sea, are the nation more properly called by this name, of which, however, there were colonies in other parts. Patrick.—Seven nations were dwell- ing in Canaan when the Israelites approached it. These had their fortified towns, their mountain-fastnesses, and in the plains, their horses and their chariots of iron. The invading Israelites possessed small experience of war, and were utterly destitute of war horses and chariots, and of engines needed for the reduc- tion of walled cities and fortresses. N. C. B.

1-10. The historian records two facts. First, that the tidings of this wonderful passage over the dry bed of the Jordan flashed over the hills and valleys of Canaan, bearing terror and dismay to all hearts. Alas, said they, who can stand before this mighty God of Israel! “Their hearts melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.” The second fact is that Joshua proceeded to the most unmilitary act of circumcising all his men of war—indeed all the children of Israel. With apparently not the least fear lest the Canaanites should muster their forces and fall suddenly upon them—with a deep feeling obviously that his first concern was to be right before God, and to have all his soldiers and people right in heart and true to every precept of their God, he sus- pended all military movements; gave his ene- mies time to recover from their panic; halted his army not only for some days of circumcision but for the feast of the Passover seven days—all as if religion was indefinitely more than military strategy—as it truly was! H. C.—That was no idle or gratuitous display of power, which afforded to the Canaanites, to Israel, and to Joshua himself, such unmistakable evidence that “the living God, the Lord of all the earth,” —no dead idol, or mere local deity—was among them, “and that he would not fail nor forsake them.” E. V.

2-12. The passage of the Jordan was com- pleted on the tenth day of the first month (Nisan = April). This was the day appointed for the selection of the Paschal Lamb, and on the evening of the fourteenth the people kept the Passover for the first time on the sacred soil of their inheritance, exactly forty years after their fathers had first kept it before leaving Egypt. But first, God commanded Joshua to circumcise the people; for the circumcised gen- eration, who had left Egypt, had died in the wilderness, and none of the present generation had been circumcised. This may be regarded as a renewal of the covenant with Abraham in the very land the promise of which had been sealed with the same sign. P. S.—3. There is a general circumcision now of the people, as there had been at their coming out of Egypt; and as God then closed the Egyptians in three days’ darkness that they could not stir, so now he striketh the Canaanites with terror that they dare not stir to hurt the people while they were sore. Circumcision sealed the lease of the land of Canaan; and therefore as soon as they set foot on it they must be circumcised. Lightfoot.

9. Entered on the Land of Promise, God once more regarded them as his own covenant people, and therefore the sign of the covenant was renewed. At the frontier fortress of Gilgal, entrenched by Joshua on the rising ground overlooking Jericho, Israel “cast off the slough of their wandering life,” and “rolled away the reproach of Egypt,” by submitting once more, at the Divine command, to the distinguishing ordinance of circumcision. Knives of flint, reserved in other countries for this and other religious rites, were used for the ceremony by which Joshua, “the type of Him who alone gives the new circumcision”—the circumcision of the heart “made without hands” (Col. 2 : 11), readmitted Abraham’s descendants to the covenant made with their great ancestor. E. V.—The best view assumes that Egypt had reproached Israel with their failure to reach Canaan during the long wanderings of forty years in the wilderness, and that God was then to roll off this reproach by visibly taking the people again into covenant relation with himself, indicated by this circumcision, and so would give them Canaan. That circumcision had been omitted in the wilderness, especially after the unbelief in the matter of the spies, implied that God’s covenant with his people was temporarily inoperative because of that unbelief. At Gilgal the Lord was returning to them in his great mercy. H. C.—The reviving of circumcision was designed to revive the observation of other institutions, the omission of which had been connived at in the wilderness. This command to circumcise them was to remind them of that which Moses had told them (De. 12 : 8), that when they were come over Jordan they must not do as they had done in the wilderness, but must come under a stricter discipline. It was said concerning many of the laws God had given them, that they must observe them in the land to which they were going. H.

10. And kept the Passover.** The third from its institution. The first was observed in Egypt on the eve of their departure, the second at Sinai on the following year (Nu. 9 : 1, 2), while during the long interval down to the present time it had been wholly suspended. Bush.—Three days after this national reconciliation of Israel, on the 14th of Nisan, the passover was celebrated. Never since its first institution had its import been more powerfully shown. They were delivered from Egypt in order that they might hold possession of Ca-

Canaan; and now at last Canaan was reached. The memorial of what Jehovah had done for their fathers would quicken their faith, and fill them with confidence as to the issue of the conflict that lay before them. For though reached, Canaan was not conquered; from the lodging-place at Gilgal, the walls and towers of Jericho, “great and fenced up to heaven,” would be a stern but salutary reminder of the nature of the struggle on which they were about to enter, and of the need of a strength not their own to secure a successful issue. E. V.

This Passover, far beyond any other yet, was suggestive of the scenes of the original institution of it forty years before—on that most eventful night of doom to Egypt, but of joyful redemption to Israel. The redemption begun there in Egypt was consummated, in a measure, here in Canaan. This crossing of the Jordan must have suggested the crossing of the Red Sea by their fathers, three days after the first Passover night. That earlier crossing put the Red Sea between them and Egyptian bondage: this latter crossing put the Jordan between them and their wilderness life. The most precious thought of all would be that God was equally in both—his uplifted right arm was made glorious for their redemption, both there and here. It must have been inspiring to all devout souls to celebrate the majesty and loving-kindness of their fathers’ God.

11,12. Among the new experiences of their Canaan life was a supply of bread from the corn (not as in our English “the old corn,” but the corn) of the land. The manna ceased as suddenly as it began. Forty years (less one and a half months) it had been the nation’s bread, fresh each morning (save the Sabbath) from God’s lower heavens. The period of its fall measured their wilderness life. This being past the manna ceased. H. C.

11. And they did eat of the old corn of the land.** Of the old grain of whatever kind it were. The original phrase, however, may be rendered simply, “They did eat of the product or yielding of the earth,” in contradistinction from the manna which came from heaven. And parched corn. That is, the new corn of the present year, which they found standing in the fields. The new or green corn was parched to enable them more easily to grind it for food. This would not be necessary in respect to old corn. Bush.

12. The manna ceased.** Now that Israel is brought to the brim of Canaan, the cloud is vanished which led them all the way; and as soon as they have crossed Jordan, the manna ceaseth which nourished them all the way. The cloud and manna were for their passage, not for their rest; for the wilderness, not for Canaan. Bp. II.—The manna which had been given to them (Ex. 16) now ceased, since they no longer required any miraculous means of subsistence. By its thus ceasing, it was more distinctly marked as a precious miraculous boon. C. G. B.

The manna ceasing when the Israelites ate of the corn of Canaan teaches us the lesson that God’s help is given, not to supersede our self-help, but to enable us to help ourselves. He gave manna where the Israelites could not provide their own food, and continued it only till they were able to supply themselves. The difference between manna and corn is most suggestive. Manna was a supernatural product provided directly by Divine power. It came to the Israelites in the wilderness without any toil or trouble of their own, and therefore it was but little esteemed by them. But corn implies and involves great and continuous labor. At every step and stage of its growth and preparation for food it demands the sweat of the face and requires that man should be a fellow-worker with God. And is there not the same wide difference in spiritual things between manna and corn, between what is given to us without any toil or trouble of our own, and what is wrought out for us and in us, as the result of our own toil, and, it may be, our own sad experience? No doubt we should prefer manna to corn; we should like to get heavenly blessings straight out of God’s hands. But the rule of the Divine kingdom is, “No cross, no crown.” II. Macmillan.

This discontinuance of the supply by which the people had been so long sustained, no less marks the signal providence of God, than the original grant of it, and its long continuance. It came not one day before it was needed; and it was continued not one day longer than was really required by the wants of the people. This strikingly showed the Lord’s care, and evinced the miraculous nature of the supply. Such indications as this of the Lord’s presence and power, were little less than visible manifestations of Deity. The life of the Christian believer does not lack similar experiences. In tracing his life back through its varied scenes, how plainly can he see that—however his heart may at times have failed him—his Lord has under all circumstances cared for him, even in the matters which belong to his daily bread. What tranquillity of mind, what blessedness of rest, may be realized, what harassing anxieties avoided, if we will only let such experience have its perfect work, by inducing us to cast all our care upon Him who careth for us, leaving him to determine what we shall lose or what retain, in the firm conviction that he will decide better for us than we, who can never determine with certainty what may be eventually good for us, could decide for ourselves. Kit.

13-15. The Prince of the army of Jehovah appears to Joshua. This is told as if he were different from Jehovah. But in verse 15 he identifies Himself manifestly with the Malakh that appeared to Moses, and in 6:2 he again appears as Jehovah himself, who gives Jericho into Joshua’s hands. O.—The real import of this passage has been obscured by the unfortunate division of chs. 5, 6. These chapters should have been run on without a break, the first verse of ch. 6 being merely parenthetical, and the words, “And the Lord said unto Joshua,” etc. (6:2), following in sense “and Joshua did so,” at the end of ch. 6. E. V.—Besides his assuming the title of the “captain of the host of the Lord,” he is called directly Jehovah at verse 2 of the next chapter; and Joshua’s falling down and worshipping him, not only without being reproved for doing him too much honor but, on the contrary, with a command to do him more by loosing his shoe from his foot (which was the highest acknowledgment of a divine presence customary among Eastern nations), is a circumstance which affords the surest evidence of the divinity of his person. Stackhouse.—That he who thus appeared as a warrior, and called himself captain of the Lord’s host, was no other than “the Word,” was plainly the sense of the ancient Jewish church. Allix.—It is the established opinion of both ancient and modern expositors that this was no other than the Son of God, the Eternal Word, appearing in that form which he was afterward to assume for the redemption of men. Bush.

From many passages in the Old and New Testaments (notably Is. 68:8, 9; John 8:56) we are led to believe: that Christ exercised great concern in the affairs of the Old Testament Church; that He did at certain periods discover Himself in the garb which He was afterward to assume, and which when assumed He went on to wear forever; that He was the superior angel whom we find speaking under that manifestation, and to whom, always, Divine honors were paid. Vaughan. (See O. T., Vol. 1, p. 337.)

The person who appeared called himself Captain or Prince of the Lord’s host, and commanded Joshua to take off his shoes, as happened at Ex. 3:5. In that passage he is called the Angel of the Lord, and this person calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In both places, then, it is the same being—He who, as the Angel of the Covenant, went before the people in the pillar of cloud and fire, and who now reveals himself, for the encouragement of Joshua and the people, as the unseen Leader, with the sword which nothing could withstand. C. G. B.—So then the mission of Joshua was substantially the continuation and completion of that of Moses. As at the commencement of the latter, the Angel of the Covenant had appeared and spoken out of the burning bush, so He now also appeared to Joshua, while the symbolical act of “loosing the shoe off his foot,” in reverent acknowledgment of the Holy One of Israel, recalled the vision of Moses, and at the same time connected it with that of his successor. A. E.

13. He here appeared as a soldier, with his sword drawn in his hand. To Abraham in his tent he appeared as a traveller; to Joshua in the field as a man of war: Christ will be to his people what their faith expects and desires. Christ had his sword drawn, which served to justify the war Joshua was engaging in, and to show him that it was of God, who gave him commission to kill and slay. H.—It was a much-needed assurance, vouchsafed in such visible form as should make it decisive and effectual, that the same invisible Divine Leader who had brought their fathers safely through the wilderness would be also with this generation in their task of reducing the war like races of Canaan and their strongly-fenced cities. It was, further, a most expressive token that the fearful work of extermination before the Israelites was indeed a divine judicial visitation on the Seven Nations, whose iniquity was now full; and that their execution of it was a duty warranted, as it could alone be warranted, by a most undoubted special divine command. The drawn sword in the hand of the Son of God we can now clearly perceive to indicate who was the real, though invisible, Agent in that act of doom. M’dd.

What the sight of the Burning Bush had been to Moses at Horeb, that the vision of the Captain of the hosts of the Lord was to Joshua at Gilgal. In each case the specific character of the vision was in sympathy with the circumstances of the time. The furnace of the Egyptian bondage and the war-like preparations for the approaching campaign are reflected in the forms of the respective apparitions. This is to be explained by the consideration that God speaks to His creatures in all ages, through sights and sympathies which they most readily understand. H. P. L.

God appears in the form best suited to His servant’s need. He contended as an athlete with Jacob that by wrestling the patriarch’s faith and knowledge might be increased. To Moses, needing to be reminded of the indestructibility of the Church of God, there was shown a burning bush unconsumed. And now, to inspirit Joshua for the campaign, God reveals Himself as a warrior armed and as the “Prince of the Lord’s host,” Captain of the visible and invisible armies, the Israelites and the angels. Analogous to these varied appearances are the titles of God, framed to assure His people that He can “supply all their need.” W. F. A.—God gave these miraculous manifestations to the leading men of those times, that we might know Him to be always near in the fulness of his love and power. In the heightened spirituality and richer grace of our Christian times we have the substance which those mystic visions did but shadow forth. In place of startling signs and symbols we have Divine words of promise, appeals to faith, awakening the intelligence and kindling the heart; words of assurance to every believer. Waie.

And Joshua went unto him. Displaying herein a remarkable courage and intrepidity. Instead of turning away from the formidable personage before him, and seeking hastily to regain the camp, he walks boldly up, and demands of him whether he be a friend or a foe. This undaunted bearing was the fruit of his strong confidence in God. No face of clay will intimidate him who looks upon God as his friend and protector, and who is found in the way of duty. The good man is ever the true hero. Bush.

14. Here were now, as of old (Gen. 32:2), Mahanaim, two hosts, a host of Israelites ready to engage the Canaanites, and a host of angels to protect them therein, and he, as Captain of both, conducts the host of Israel, and commands the host of angels to their assistance. Perhaps, in allusion to this, Christ is called the Captain of our salvation (Heb. 2:10), and a Leader and Commander to the people (Is. 55:4). He now came as Captain to give the necessary orders for the besieging of Jericho. H.

15. Soldier-like, the captain-general had demanded of him, “Art thou for us or for our adversaries?” The challenge woke at once the voice of Majesty. “Nay, not as thou deemest am I: prepare thy soul for God’s unlooked-for visitation: as Captain of the Host of the Lord am I come. Not as mingling with these earthly hosts, but as thy fellow in a higher order; as the Mighty One in heavenly places of whom thou art here, and now on earth the type and shadow: as Him whom all angels worship, as the uncreated Angel of the Covenant, as the Captain of the heavenly host of God have I come to thee." The soul of Joshua owned at once the presence of his God; “he fell on his face to the earth and did worship,” and cried, “What saith my Lord unto his servant?” And then came the answer which the Minister of Moses would read so readily in all the wide extent of its mysterious significance, the “Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place where thou standest is holy.” That burning bush of which his great master had so often told him in their solemn communings, must have risen before his eyes; and there was renewed unto him, with all the added awe of such a personal appearance, the earlier promise, “As I was with Moses so also I will be with Thee.” Wilberforce.

And most signally did he fight for Israel: in the miraculous downfall of the walls of Jericho (6: 20); in destroying the confederated southern nations with hailstones in their flight (18: 11); in prolonging the day of battle to an unusual length, at Joshua’s petition, by making the sun and moon stand still about a whole day (10: 12-27); by driving out some of the northern nations by the hornet or gud-fly (24: 12), as foretold by Moses (Ex. 23: 28; De. 7: 20). Hales.

Between Moses and Joshua the difference was marked as strongly as possible. Joshua was the soldier,—the first soldier, consecrated by the Sacred history. He was not a teacher, not a Prophet. He was a simple, straightforward, undaunted soldier. What is required of him, and described in him, is that he was “very courageous.”

“He was strong and of a good courage.” “He was not afraid nor dismayed.” He turned neither to the right hand nor to the left; but at the head of the hosts of Israel he went right forward from Jordan to Jericho, from Jericho to Ai, from Ai to Gibeon, to Beth-horon, to Merom. He wavered not for a moment; he was here, he was there, he was everywhere, as the emergency called for him. He had no words of wisdom, except those which shrewd common sense and public spirit dictated. To him the Divine Revelation was made not in the burning bush nor in the still small voice, but as “the Captain of the Lord’s host, with a drawn sword in his hand;” and that drawn and glittering sword was the vision which went before him through the land, till all the kings of Canaan were subdued beneath his feet. Slight as may be the connection between the first and last to whom this name of Joshua or Jesus was given with any religious significance, it demands our consideration for the sake of two points which are often overlooked, and which may in this relation catch the attention of those who might else overlook them altogether. One is the prominence into which it brings the true meaning of the sacred Name, as a deliverance from enemies as real as the Canaanitish host. The first Joshua was to save his people from their actual foes. The Second was to “save his people from their sins.” Again, the career of Joshua gives a note of preparation for the singularly martial, soldier-like aspect—also often forgotten—under which his Namesake is at times set forth. The courage, the cheerfulness, the sense of victory and success, which runs both through the actual history of the Gospels, and through the idealization of it in “the Conqueror” of the writings of John, finds its best illustration from the older church in the character and career of Joshua. Stanley.