Joshua 5

Joshua 5:2-15

Religious Preparations (5:2-15) The religious preparations for entrance into the land consist of two acts of fulfillment of the Law by all the people and one of worship on the part of their leader. These acts illustrate the twin emphases enunciated in chapter 1 and throughout the book: if Israel is to succeed in the Conquest, it must fully obey the Law; and if it does, it may be certain of God’s presence and leadership. The act of circumcision recorded here (5:2-7) is explained as required by the non-practice of the rite during the days of the wilderness wandering. The males who had come out of Egypt under Moses had been circumcised, but their sons who had been born since the Exodus had not. Without the obedience of this new generation to the Law in respect to this rite, Israel could expect no help from God in the conquest of the land. The circumcising is to be done with flint knives (vs. 2). At Joshua’s time (the thirteenth century B.C.) tools of bronze had largely replaced stone implements, and soon afterward (from the twelfth century on) bronze was gradually replaced by iron in Palestine. But in religious customs of long standing, ancient materials and methods persist long after general cultural changes. When Israel adopted the practice of circumcision and exactly what it meant at first have been strongly debated. Circumcision was practiced by the Egyptians and by most of the ancient Semites. Wall reliefs from Egypt of the third millennium 8.c. show the operation being performed. The Babylonians, Assyrians, and Philistines did not circumcise. The latter were contemptuously labeled by the Hebrews “the uncircumcised” (Judges 14:3; Judges 15:18; 1 Samuel 14:6). Some have argued on the basis of the Septuagint text of Jos 5:2 (which does not have the words “again the second time”) that circumcision was adopted by the Hebrews in the time of Joshua— at the event described in Joshua 5:2-9— and that the claim that it was instituted by Abraham (Genesis 17:9-14; Genesis 21:4) is a late and unhistorical view. But in view of the antiquity of the rite among ancient Near Eastern peoples, the traditions that connect it with Moses (Exodus 4:25-26; Exodus 12:43-51) and Abraham, the use of flint (rather than bronze or iron) knives, and the actual unfeasibility of strict practice of the rite in the conditions under which Israel lived in the wilderness period, it is better to credit its origin among the Hebrews to a time considerably before Joshua, as this passage affirms. In Israel circumcision was an act of initiation into the Covenant community (Genesis 17:11), whatever it may have meant to surrounding peoples (perhaps preparation for marriage or sacrifice of powers of fertility to the deity or tribal mark, or some combination of these). Without the mark of membership in the Covenant community, uncircumcised Israelites would have no assurance of God’s help. The explanation of “Gilgal” as the place where the Lord “rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you” (vs. 9) is an alternate and inferior explanation to that provided in 4:19-24. It is likely that Gilgal (“circle of stones”), an early and important Israelite sanctuary, was a place where circumcision was practiced and that this secondary explanation of the name grew up at a later time. The second act of religious preparation was the celebration of the Passover, which appropriately followed upon circumcision. According to Exodus 12:43-49 no uncircumcised male could eat the Passover. Now all Israel was fitted for the sacred feast of remembrance. What greater support for the uncertain future could be imagined than the remembrance in dramatic ceremony of the mighty deliverance from Egypt under the guidance of God, whose power was so much greater than that of the petty kings of Canaan? The eating of unleavened cakes and parched grain from the produce of Canaan marked the end of the supply of manna. The people of Israel are said, according to one tradition (Exodus 16:35), to have eaten manna for forty years, “till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.” In the Book of Joshua the manna is said to have lasted until the encampment at Gilgal, west of the Jordan. (For “manna,” see comment on Deuteronomy 8:1-20.) The promise of God’s presence with Joshua and his unfailing help in the Conquest (1:5, 9) is now dramatically symbolized in the appearance of “the commander of the army of the LORD” (5:14). Joshua perhaps may be thought of as inspecting the terrain and the defenses of Jericho and planning his attack. Suddenly he becomes acutely aware of the presence of Deity, by whose help alone the victory could be won. The commander-in-chief of the Lord’s armies apparently is conceived of as an angel, but the distinction between the appearance of God himself and that of his angel is not very clearly drawn in the Old Testament (Genesis 18; Judges 6:11-18). The “army of the LORD” here is probably the hosts of angels who fight for the people of God (Genesis 32:1-2; 2 Kings 6:17), though the term does not necessarily exclude the forces of Israel. The point of view is that God and his heavenly hosts fight with and for the armies of Israel. Like Moses (Exodus 3:5), Joshua is commanded to remove his shoes when standing on ground made holy (taboo) by the presence of Deity. And again like Moses, Joshua is only the servant of the Lord (1:1-2; Deuteronomy 34:5), whose delight is to do the Lord’s bidding. In worship and humble obedience will both leader and people find the overcoming power of the Lord.