Joshua 5:6-8
The Voice
Circumcision—the ritual removal of a male’s foreskin, usually in infancy—is one of the ways God tells His people to distinguish themselves from those around them. This rite is carried out at this point in the story to reconfirm the Israelites’ identity as God’s people and to prepare them for the greatest celebration that marks them as God’s people—the Passover—which commemorates God bringing them safely out of slavery in Egypt.
6 The Israelites had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and because they would not listen to the voice of the Eternal, God promised that none of the original community would live to enter the land He promised to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 It was their children and grandchildren whom He raised up to receive that land instead. Joshua circumcised those sons and grandsons now because it had not been done previously. 8 When they all had been circumcised, they remained in their camp until their wounds were healed.
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