Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 5:1

And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which [were] on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which [were] by the sea, heard 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.

Ch. Jos 5:1-9. Renewal of the Rite of Circumcision

1. when all the kings of the Amorites ] This verse stands in close connection with the last verse of the preceding Chapter. All the peoples of the earth were “to know the Name of the Lord” and to fear Him. A first example of this is seen in the case of the Canaanite nations.

which were by the sea ] See note above on Jos 3:10.

their heart melted ] The terror which, as Rahab had told the spies, had already seized them was greatly increased by the news of the marvellous passage of the Jordan. Wyclif renders it, “the herte of hem is discomfortid, and abood not in hem spiryte of hem.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The Amorites were the principal of those nations which occupied the hill country of Judaea (Gen 10:16 note); the Canaanites of those that dwelt on the coast and low lands. These words are therefore equivalent to all the kings of the highlanders, and all the kings of the lowlanders: i. e. the kings of all the tribes of the country.

Until we were passed over – The use of the first person has been noted here, and in Jos 5:6 (compare Act 16:10), as suggesting the hand of one who himself shared in what he describes. But the text as read (though not written) by the Jewish authorities here, has the third person; as have some manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate, etc.: and a change of person like this in Hebrew, even if the text stand, does not of itself warrant the inference. (Compare Psa 66:6.)

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Jos 5:1

Their heart melted . . . because of the children of Israel.

Divine control over all

Kings and princes, captains and nobles, are most perfectly under the control of God; not only their counsels and operations, but their very spirits are subject to the influence of His secret and all-pervading dominion; they are restrained by cowardice, or incited by courage; intimidated by fear, or emboldened by valour, as best may promote the purposes of Providence and the interests of the Church. More has often been effected by this, wherein has appeared no human agency, than could have been by all the advantages of physical strength. It has been seen in the procedure of the Divine government, and opening of the secret counsels of heaven, that turns the most peculiar and results the most momentous have proceeded from this invisible working of God. But for this, the condition of Israel, as frequently appeared in review, would have inspired their adversaries, and, in the mere opposing of force to force, insured to them triumph. A spirit of blindness and infatuation has been permitted to seize the enemies of the Church, and to fall upon the powers of the world, or the Lords people had again and again been swallowed up. The expedients of infinite wisdom, and resources of almighty power, never fail: they are innumerable, and always at command; not confined to the common laws of nature, but comprehend the secret dominion of spirits, and that unlimited range of omnipotence, by which, in special operations, all things are possible with God, and present to instant adoption, as the purposes of His love may require, or the counsel of His will determine. (W. Seaton.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER V

The effect produced on the minds of the Canaanites by the late

miracle, 1.

Joshua is commanded to circumcise the Israelites, 2.

He obeys, 3.

Who they were that were circumcised, and why it was now done,

4-7.

They abide in the camp till they are whole, 8.

The place is called Gilgal, and why, 9.

They keep the passover in the same place, 10.

They eat unleavened cakes and parched corn, on the morrow after

the passover, 11.

The manna ceases, 12.

The captain of the Lord’s host appears to Joshua, 13-15.

NOTES ON CHAP. V

Verse 1. The Amorites which were on the side of Jordan westward] It has already been remarked that the term Amorite is applied sometimes to signify all the nations or tribes of Canaan. It appears from this verse that there were people thus denominated that dwelt on both sides of the Jordan. Those on the east side had already been destroyed in the war which the Israelites had with Sihon and Og; with those on the west side Joshua had not yet waged war. It is possible however that the Amorites of whom we read in this verse, were the remains of those who dwelt on the east side of the Jordan, and who had taken refuge here on the defeat of Og and Sihon.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The Amorites and the Canaanites are mentioned for all the rest, as being the chief of them for number, and power, and courage.

Westward: this is added to distinguish them from the other Amorites, eastward from Jordan, whom Moses had subdued.

All the kings of the Canaanites; so the proper place of this nation was on both sides of Jordan.

By the sea; the midland sea, all along the coast of it, which was the chief seat of that people, though divers colonies of them were come into and settled in other places.

Jordan was their bulwark on the east side, where the Israelites were; for it is very probable they had taken away all bridges near those parts; and the Israelites having been so long in that neighbouring country, and yet not making any attempt upon them, they were grown secure; especially now, when Jordan swelled beyond its ordinary bounds; and therefore they did not endeavour to hinder their passage.

Their heart melted; they lost all their courage, and durst attempt nothing upon the Israelites; not without Gods special providence, that the Israelites might quietly participate of the two great sacraments of their church, circumcision and the passover, and thereby be prepared for their high and hard work, and for the possession of the holy and promised land, which would have been defiled by an uncircumcised people.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. the kings of the Amorites, whichwere on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of theCanaanites, which were by the seaUnder the former designationwere included the people who inhabited the mountainous region, andunder the latter those who were on the seacoast of Palestine.

heard that the Lord had driedup the waters of Jordan . . . that their heart meltedThey hadprobably reckoned on the swollen river interposing for a time a surebarrier of defense. But seeing it had been completely dried up, theywere completely paralyzed by so incontestable a proof that God was onthe side of the invaders. In fact, the conquest had already begun inthe total prostration of spirit among the native chiefs. “Theirheart melted,” but unhappily not into faith and penitentsubmission.

Jos5:2-12. CIRCUMCISIONIS RENEWED.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which [were] on the side of Jordan westward,…. On the side the Israelites were now on; and this is observed, to distinguish them from the other kings of the Amorites beyond Jordan, on the eastern side, who were already conquered by the Israelites, Sihon and Og, who seem to be a colony that went over from the Amorites in Canaan, and possessed themselves of that part of the land of Moab. These seem to be put for several others of the nations of the land not mentioned, who doubtless were as much dispirited as they; and they are the rather mentioned, because they were a principal nation, and a very powerful and warlike one, see Am 2:9.

and all the kings of the Canaanites which [were] by the sea; the Mediterranean sea; the Septuagint version calls them the kings of Phoenicia; and that which was strictly and property so lay on that coast, in which were the cities of Tyre and Sidon, though the whole land of Canaan was sometimes so called; unless this is to be understood, either of the dead sea, or of the sea of Galilee; of which Canaanites, see Nu 13:29; however, be they the one or the other, or both, as most likely, when they

heard 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; they lost all their courage, and never recovered it any more; concluding it was all over with them, since such wonderful things were done for them by the Lord: the word “we” shows that the writer of this history was one that passed over Jordan, and who can be supposed but Joshua himself? this circumstance, I think, strongly corroborates that opinion.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Circumcision of the People. – Jos 5:1. Whilst, on the one hand, the approach of the passover rendered it desirable that the circumcision of those who had remained uncircumcised should be carried out without delay, on the other hand the existing circumstances were most favourable for the performance of this covenant duty, inasmuch as the miracle wrought in connection with the passage through the Jordan had thrown the Canaanites into such alarm that there was no fear of their attacking the Israelitish camp. To indicate this, the impression produced by this miracle is described, namely, that all the kings of Canaan had been thrown into despair in consequence. All the tribes of Canaan are grouped together here under the names of Amorites and Canaanites, the tribes in possession of the mountains being all called Amorites, and those who lived by the sea, i.e., by the shore of the Mediterranean, Canaanites (vid., Jos 1:4): for the Amorites upon the mountains were the strongest of all the Canaanitish tribes at that time (see at Gen 10:16); whilst the name Canaanites, i.e., the bent one (see at Gen 9:25), was peculiarly appropriate to the inhabitants of the lowlands, who relied upon trade more than upon warfare, and were probably dependent upon the strong and mighty Amorites. The application of the expression “beyond Jordan” (Eng. Ver. “on the side of”) to the country on this side, may be explained on the ground that the historian was still writing from the stand-point of the crossing. But in order to prevent any misunderstanding, he adds “towards the west,” as he had previously added “towards the sunrise,” in Jos 1:15, when speaking of the land on the eastern side. That we have the report of an eye-witness here is evident from the words, “until we were passed over:” the reading of the Keri, (till they were passed over), is nothing but an arbitrary and needless conjecture, and ought not to have been preferred by Bleek and others, notwithstanding the fact that the ancient versions and some MSS also adopt it.

Jos 5:2-8

At that time (sc., the time of their encampment at Gilgal, and when the Canaanites were in despair) Joshua had the people “circumcised again, the second time.” The word (a second time) is only added to give emphasis to , or as an explanation of it, and is not to be pressed, either here or in Isa 11:11, as though it denoted the repetition of the same act in every respect, i.e., of an act of circumcision which had once before been performed upon the whole nation. It merely expresses this meaning, “circumcise the people again, or the second time, as it was formerly circumcised” (i.e., a circumcised people, not in the same manner in which it once before had circumcision performed upon it). When the people came out of Egypt they were none of them uncircumcised, as distinctly affirmed in Jos 5:5; but during their journey through the wilderness circumcision had been neglected, so that now the nation was no longer circumcised, and therefore it was necessary that circumcision should be performed upon the nation as a whole, by circumcising all who were uncircumcised. The opinion of Masius and O. v. Gerlach, that the expression “the second time” refers to the introduction of circumcision, when Abraham was circumcised with all his house, is very far-fetched. are not “sharp knives,” but “stone knives,” which were used according to ancient custom (see at Exo 4:25), literally knives of rocks (the plural zurim is occasioned by charboth, as in Num 13:32, etc.; the singular might have been used: see Ewald, 270, c.).

Jos 5:3

Joshua had the circumcision performed “at the hill of the foreskins,” as the place was afterwards called from the fact that the foreskins were buried there.

Jos 5:4-7

The reason for the circumcision of the whole nation was the following: all the fighting men who came out of Egypt had died in the wilderness by the way; for all the people that came out were circumcised; but all that were born in the wilderness during the journey had not been circumcised ( , on their coming out of Egypt, which only came to an end on their arrival in Canaan). They walked forty years in the wilderness; till all the people – that is to say, all the fighting men – who came out of Egypt were consumed, because they had not hearkened to the voice of the Lord, and had been sentenced by the Lord to die in the wilderness (Jos 5:6; cf. Num 14:26., Num 26:64-65, and Deu 2:14-16). But He (Jehovah) set up their sons in their place, i.e., He caused them to take their place; and these Joshua circumcised (i.e., had them circumcised), for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised by the way. This explains the necessity for a general circumcision of all the people, but does not state the reason why those who were born in the wilderness had not been circumcised. All that is affirmed in Jos 5:5 and Jos 5:7 is, that this had not taken place “by the way.” The true reason may be gathered from Jos 5:6, if we compare the statement made in this verse, “for the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the men that were capable of bearing arms were consumed … unto whom the Lord sware that He would not show them the land promised to the fathers,” with the sentence pronounced by God to which these words refer, viz., Num 14:29-34. The Lord is then said to have sworn that all the men of twenty years old and upwards, who had murmured against Him, should perish in the wilderness; and though their sons should enter the promised land, they too should pasture, i.e., lead a nomad life, for forty years in the wilderness, and bear the apostasy of their fathers, till their bodies had fallen in the desert. This clearly means, that not only was the generation that came out of Egypt sentenced to die in the wilderness because of its rebellion against the Lord, and therefore rejected by God, but the sons of this generation had to bear the whoredom, i.e., the apostasy of their fathers from the Lord, for the period of forty years, until the latter had been utterly consumed; that is to say, during all this time they were to endure the punishment of rejection along with their fathers: with this difference alone, that the sons were not to die in the wilderness, but were to be brought into the promised land after their fathers were dead. The sentence upon the fathers, that their bodies should fall in the desert, was unquestionably a rejection of them on the part of God, an abrogation of the covenant with them. This punishment was also to be borne by their sons; and hence the reason why those who were born in the desert by the way were not circumcised. As the covenant of the Lord with the fathers was abrogated, the sons of the rejected generation were not to receive the covenant sign of circumcision. Nevertheless this abrogation of the covenant with the generation that had been condemned, was not a complete dissolution of the covenant relation, so far as the nation as a whole was concerned, since the whole nation had not been rejected, but only the generation of men that were capable of bearing arms when they came out of Egypt, whilst the younger generation which had grown up in the desert was to be delivered from the ban, which rested upon it as well, and brought into the land of Canaan when the time of punishment had expired. For this reason the Lord did not withdraw from the nation every sign of His grace; but in order that the consciousness might still be sustained in the young and rising generation, that the covenant would be set up again with them when the time of punishment had expired, He left them not only the presence of the pillar of cloud and fire, but also the manna and other tokens of His grace, the continuance of which therefore cannot be adduced as an argument against our view of the time of punishment as a temporary suspension of the covenant.

But if this was the reason for the omission of circumcision,

(Note: This reason was admitted even by Calvin, and has been well supported by Hengstenberg (Diss. ii. pp. 13ff.). The arguments adduced by Kurtz in opposition to this view are altogether unfounded. We have already observed that the reason for the suspension is not given in Jos 5:7; and the further remark, that in Jos 5:5 (“all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised”) the book of Joshua dates the suspension not from the sentence of rejection, but expressly and undoubtedly (?) from the departure from Egypt, has no force whatever, unless we so press the word all (“all the people that were born in the desert”) as not to allow of the slightest exception. But this is decidedly precluded by the fact, that we cannot imagine it possible for God to have established His covenant with the people at a time when they had neglected the fundamental law of the covenant, the transgression of which was threatened with destruction (Gen 17:14), by neglecting to circumcise all the children who had been born between the departure from Egypt and the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai. We are also prevented from pressing the little word “all” in this manner by the evident meaning of the words before us. In Jos 5:4 and Jos 5:5 the Israelites are divided into two classes: (1) All the people that came out of Egypt and were circumcised; and (2) All the people that were born in the desert and were uncircumcised. The first of these died in the wilderness, the second came to Canaan and were circumcised by Joshua at Gilgal. But if we should press the word “all” in these clauses, it would follow that all the male children who were under twenty years of age at the time of the exodus, either died in the desert or were circumcised a second time at Gilgal. Lastly, it does not follow from Jos 5:6 that the circumcision was suspended for exactly forty years; for the forty years during which Israel journeyed in the desert until the murmuring generation was consumed, are to be interpreted by Num 14:33-34, and amounted, chronologically considered, to no more than thirty-eight years and a few months. On the other hand, the other very general view which Kurtz adopts – namely, that the circumcision was omitted during the journey through the desert on account of the hardships connected with travelling, and because it was impossible to have regard to particular families who might wish for longer rest on account of their children who had just been circumcised, and were suffering from the wound, just at the time when they had to decamp and journey onward, and they could not well be left behind – throws but little light upon the subject, as the assumption that the people were constantly wandering about for forty years is altogether an unfounded one. The Israelites were not always wandering about: not only did they stay at Sinai for eleven whole months, but even after that they halted for weeks and months at the different places of encampment, when they might have circumcised their children without the slightest danger of their suffering from the wound.)

it did not commence till the second year of their journey, viz., at the time when the murmuring nation was rejected at Kadesh (Num 14); so that by “all the people that were born in the wilderness” we are to understand those who were born after that time, and during the last thirty-eight years of their wanderings, just as “all the people that came out of Egypt” are to be understood as signifying only those men who were twenty years old and upwards when they came out. Consequently circumcision was suspended as long as the nation was under the ban of the divine sentence pronounced upon it at Kadesh. This sentence was exhausted when they crossed the brook Zared and entered the country of the Amorites (compare Deu 2:14 with Num 21:12-13). Why, then, was not the circumcision performed during the encampment in the steppes of Moab either before or after the numbering, since all those who had been sentenced to die in the wilderness were already dead (Num 26:65)? The different answers which have been given to this question are some of them wrong, and others incomplete. For example, the opinion held by some, that the actual reason was that the forty years had not yet expired, is incorrect (see Deu 2:14). And the uncertainty how long they would remain in the steppes of Moab cannot be adduced as an explanation, as there were no circumstances existing that were likely to occasion a sudden and unexpected departure from Shittim. The reason why Moses did not renew the circumcision before the end of his own life, is to be sought for in the simple fact that he would not undertake an act of such importance without an express command from the Lord, especially as he was himself under sentence to die without entering the promised land. But the Lord did not enjoin the renewal of the covenant sign before Israel had been conducted into the promised land, because He saw fit first of all to incline the hearts of the people to carry out His commandment through this magnificent proof of His grace. It is the rule of divine grace first to give and then to ask. As the Lord did not enjoin circumcision as a covenant duty upon Abraham himself till He had given him a practical proof of His grace by leading him to Canaan, and by repeated promises of a numerous posterity, and of the eventual possession of the land; and just as He did not give the law to the children of Israel at Sinai till He had redeemed them with a mighty arm from the bondage of Egypt, and borne them on eagles’ wings, and brought them to Himself, and had thereby made them willing to promise gladly to fulfil all that He should say to them as His covenant nation; so now He did not require the renewal of circumcision, which involved as the covenant sign the observance of the whole law, till He had given His people practical proofs, through the help afforded in the defeat of Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and in the miraculous division of the waters of Jordan, that He was able to remove all the obstacles that might lie in the way of the fulfilment of His promises, and give them the promised land for their inheritance, as He had sworn to their fathers.

Jos 5:8

When the rite of circumcision had been performed upon them all, the people remained quietly in the camp till those who were circumcised had recovered. “They abode in their places, ” i.e., sat still as they were, without attempting anything. , to revive (Gen 45:27; Job 14:14), or recover (2Ki 1:2; 2Ki 8:8, etc.). The circumcision of the people could not be performed earlier than the day after the crossing of the Jordan, i.e., according to Jos 4:19, not earlier than the 11th day of the first month. Now, as the passover was to be kept, and actually was kept, on the 14th (Jos 5:10), the two accounts are said to be irreconcilable, and the account of the circumcision has been set down as a later and unhistorical legend. But the objections made to the historical credibility of this account – viz., that the suffering consequent upon circumcision made a person ill for several days, and according to Gen 34:25 was worst on the third day, so that the people could not have kept the passover on that day, and also that the people could not possibly have been all circumcised on one day – are founded upon false assumptions. In the latter, for example, the number of persons to be circumcised is estimated, most absurdly, at a million; whereas, according to the general laws of population, the whole of the male population of Israel, which contained only 601,730 of twenty years of age and upwards, besides 23,000 Levites of a month old and upwards, when the census was taken a short time before in the steppes of Moab, could not amount to more than a million in all, and of these between 280,000 and 330,000 were thirty-eight years old, and therefore, having been born before the sentence was pronounced upon the nation at Kadesh, and for the most part before the exodus from Egypt, had been already circumcised, so that there were only 670,000, or at the most 720,000, to be circumcised now. Consequently the proportion between the circumcised and uncircumcised was one to three or three and a half; and the operation could therefore be completed without any difficulty in the course of a single day. As regards the consequences of this operation, Gen 34:25 by no means proves that the pain was most acute on the third day; and even it this really were the case, it would not prevent the keeping of the passover, as the lambs could have been killed and prepared by the 280,000 or 330,000 circumcised men; and even those who were still unwell could join in the meal, since it was only Levitical uncleanness, and not disease or pain, which formed a legal impediment to this (Num 9:10.).

(Note: For the basis upon which this computation rests, see Keil’s Commentary on Joshua, p. 139 (Eng. trans. 1857).)

But if there were about 300,000 men of the age of forty and upwards who could not only perform the rite of circumcision upon their sons or younger brother, but, if necessary, were able at any moment to draw the sword, there was no reason whatever for their being afraid of an attack on the part of the Canaanites, even if the latter had not been paralyzed by the miraculous crossing of the Jordan.

Jos 5:9

When the circumcision was completed, the Lord said to Joshua, “ This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.” “The reproach of Egypt” is the reproach proceeding from Egypt, as “the reproach of Moab,” in Zep 2:8, is the reproach heaped upon Israel by Moab (cf. Isa 51:7; Eze 16:57). We are not to understand by this the Egyptian bondage, or the misery which still cleaved to the Israelites from Egypt, and the still further misery which they had suffered during their journey, on account of the displeasure of Jehovah ( Knobel), but the reproach involved in the thoughts and sayings of the Egyptians, that Jehovah had brought the Israelites out of Egypt to destroy them in the desert (Exo 32:12; Num 14:13-16; Deu 9:28), which rested upon Israel as long as it was condemned to wander restlessly about and to die in the wilderness. This reproach was rolled away from Israel with the circumcision of the people at Gilgal, inasmuch as this act was a practical declaration of the perfect restoration of the covenant, and a pledge that the Lord would now give them the land of Canaan for their inheritance. From this occurrence the place where the Israelites were encamped received the name of Gilgal, viz., “rolling away,” from , to roll. This explanation and derivation of the name is not to be pronounced incorrect and unhistorical, simply because it merely preserves the subordinate idea of rolling, instead of the fuller idea of the rolling away of reproach. For the intention was not to form a word which should comprehend the whole affair with exhaustive minuteness, but simply to invent a striking name which should recall the occurrence, like the name Tomi, of which Ovid gives the following explanation: Inde Tomos dictus locus est quia fertur in illo membra soror fratris consecuisse sui ( Trist. iii. 9, 33). Knobel is wrong in maintaining that the name should be explained in a different way, and that this Gilgal is the same as Geliloth (circles) in Jos 18:17 (see the explanation given at Jos 15:7). The word gilgal, formed from , to roll, signifies primarily rolling, then a wheel (Isa 28:28); and if by possibility it signifies orbis also, like , this is neither the original nor the only meaning of the word. According to Josephus (Ant. Jos 18:1, Jos 18:4), Israel encamped fifty stadia, i.e., two hours and a half, from the Jordan, and ten stadia, or half an hour, from Jericho-that is to say, in the plain or steppe between Jericho and the Jordan, in an uninhabited and uncultivated spot, which received the name of Gilgal for the first time, as the place where the Israelites were encamped. No town or village ever existed there, either at the period in question or at any later time. The only other places in which this Gilgal can be shown to be evidently referred to, are Mic 6:5 and 2Sa 19:6, 2Sa 19:41; and the statement made by Eusebius in the Onom. s. v. Galgala, , which Jerome paraphrases thus, “Even to the present day a deserted place is pointed out at the second mile from Jericho, which is held in amazing reverence by the inhabitants of that region,” by no means proves the existence of a town or village there in the time of the Israelites. Consequently it is not to be wondered at, that in spite of repeated search, Robinson has not been able to discover any remains of Gilgal to the east of Jericho, or to meet with any Arab who could tell him of such a name in this locality (see Rob. Pal. ii. pp. 287-8 and 278). On the situation of the Gilgal mentioned in Jos 9:6; Jos 10:6, etc., see at Jos 8:35.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Circumcision of the Israelites.

B. C. 1451.

      1 And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard 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 sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.   3 And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.   4 And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.   5 Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.   6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.   7 And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.   8 And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, 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 the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

      A vast show, no doubt, the numerous camp of Israel made in the plains of Jericho, where now they had pitched their tents. Who can count the dust of Jacob? That which had long been the church in the wilderness has now come up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved, and looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. How terrible she was in the eyes of her enemies we are here told, v. 1. How fair and clear she was made in the eyes of her friends, by the rolling away of the reproach of Egypt, we are told in the following verses.

      I. Here is the fright which the Canaanites were put into by their miraculously passing over Jordan, v. 1. The news of it was soon dispersed all the country over, not only as a prodigy in itself, but as an alarm to all the kings and kingdoms of Canaan. Now, as when Babylon was taken, One post runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to carry the amazing tidings to every corner of their land, Jer. li. 31. And here we are told what impressions the tidings made upon the kings of this land: Their heart melted like wax before the fire, neither was there spirit in them any more. This intimates that, though the heart of the people generally had fainted before (as Rahab owned, ch. ii. 9), yet the kings had till now kept up their spirits pretty well, had promised themselves that, being in possession, their country populous, and their cities fortified, they should be able to make their part good against the invaders; but when they heard not only that they had come over Jordan, and that this defence of their country was broken through, but that they had come over by a miracle, the God of nature manifestly fighting for them, their hearts failed them too, they gave up the cause for gone, and were now at their wits’ end. And, 1. They had reason enough to be afraid; Israel itself was a formidable body, and much more so when God was its head, a God of almighty power. What can make head against them if Jordan be driven back before them? 2. God impressed these fears upon them, and dispirited them, as he had promised (Exod. xxiii. 27), I will send my fear before thee. God can make the wicked to fear where no fear is (Ps. liii. 5), much more where there is such cause for fear as was here. He that made the soul can, when he pleases, make his sword thus to approach to it and kill it with his terrors.

      II. The opportunity which this gave to the Israelites to circumcise those among them that were uncircumcised: At that time (v. 2), when the country about them was in that great consternation, God ordered Joshua to circumcise the children of Israel, for at that time it might be done with safety even in an enemy’s country; their hearts being melted, their hands were tied, that they could not take this advantage against them as Simeon and Levi did against the Shechemites, to come upon them when they were sore. Joshua could not be sure of this, and therefore, if he had ordered this general circumcision just at this time of his own head, he might justly have been censured as imprudent; for, how good soever the thing was in itself, in the eye of reason it was not seasonable at this time, and might have been of dangerous consequence; but, when God commanded him to do it, he must not consult with flesh and blood; he that bade them to do it would, no doubt, protect them and bear them out in it. Now observe,

      1. The occasion there was for this general circumcision. (1.) All that came out of Egypt were circumcised, v. 5. while they had peace in Egypt doubtless they circumcised their children the eighth day according to the law. But after they began to be oppressed, especially when the edict was made for the destruction of their male infants, the administration of this ordinance was interrupted; many of them were uncircumcised, of whom there was a general circumcision, either during the time of the three days’ darkness, as Dr. Lightfoot conjectures, or a year after, just before their eating the second passover at Mount Sinai, and in order to that solemnity (Num. ix. 2) as many think. And it is with reference to that general circumcision that this is called a second, v. 2. But the learned Masius thinks it refers to the general circumcision of Abraham’s family when that ordinance was first instituted, Gen. xvii. 23. That first confirmed the promise of the land of Canaan, this second was a thankful celebration of the performance of that promise. But, (2.) All that were born in the wilderness, namely, after their walking in the wilderness, became by the divine sentence a judgment upon them for their disobedience, as is intimated by that repetition of the sentence, v. 6. All that were born since that fatal day on which God swore in his wrath that none of that generation should enter into his rest were uncircumcised. But what shall we say to this? Had not God enjoined it to Abraham, under a very severe penalty, that every man-child of his seed should be circumcised on the eighth day? Gen. xvii. 9-14. Was it not the seal of the everlasting covenant? Was not so great a stress laid upon it when they were coming out of Egypt that when, immediately after the first passover, the law concerning that feast was made perpetual, this was one clause of it, that no uncircumcised person should eat of it, but should be deemed as a stranger? and yet, under the government of Moses himself, to have all their children that were born for thirty-eight years together left uncircumcised is unaccountable. So great an omission could not be general but by divine direction. Now, [1.] Some think circumcision was omitted because it was needless: it was appointed to be a mark of distinction between the Israelites and other nations, and therefore in the wilderness, where they were so perfectly separated from all and mingled with none, there was no occasion for it. [2.] Others think that they did not look upon the precept of circumcision as obligatory till they came to settle in Canaan; for in the covenant made with them at Mount Sinai nothing was said about circumcision, neither was it of Moses but of the fathers (John vii. 22), and with particular reference to the grant of the land of Canaan, Gen. xvii. 8. [3.] Others think that God favourably dispensed with the observance of this ordinance in consideration of the unsettledness of their state, and their frequent removals while they were in the wilderness. It was requisite that children after they were circumcised should rest for some time while they were sore, and stirring them might be dangerous to them; God therefore would have mercy and not sacrifice. This reason is generally acquiesced in, but to me it is not satisfactory, for sometimes they staid a year in a place (Num. ix. 22), if not much longer, and in their removals the little children, though sore, might be wrapped so warm, and carried so easy, as to receive no damage, and might certainly be much better accommodated than the mothers in travail or while lying in. Therefore, [4.] To me it seems to have been a continued token of God’s displeasure against them for their unbelief and murmuring. Circumcision was originally a seal of the promise of the land of Canaan, as we observed before. It was in the believing hope of that good land that the patriarchs circumcised their children; but when God had sworn in his wrath concerning the men of was who came out of Egypt that they should be consumed in the wilderness, and never enter Canaan, nor come within sight of it (as that sentence is here repeated, v. 6, reference being made to it), as a further ratification of that sentence, and to be a constant memorandum of it to them, all that fell under that sentence, and were to fall by it, were forbidden to circumcise their children, by which they were plainly told that, whatever others might, they should never have the benefit of that promise of which circumcision was the seal. And this was such a significant indication of God’s wrath as the breaking of the tables of the covenant was when Israel had broken the covenant by making the golden calf. It is true that there is no express mention of this judicial prohibition in the account of that sentence; but an intimation of it in Num. xiv. 33, Your children shall bear your whoredoms. It is probable the children of Caleb and Joshua were circumcised, for they were excepted out of that sentence, and of Caleb it is particularly said, To him will I give the land, and to his children (Deut. i. 36), which was the very promise that circumcision was the seal of: and Joshua is here told to circumcise the people, not his own family. Whatever the reason was, it seems that this great ordinance was omitted in Israel for almost forty years together, which is a plain indication that it was not of absolute necessity, nor was to be of perpetual obligation, but should in the fulness of time be abolished, as now it was for so long a time suspended.

      2. The orders given to Joshua for this general circumcision (v. 2): Circumcise again the children of Israel, not the same person, but the body of the people. Why was this ordered to be done now? Answ. (1.) Because now the promise of which circumcision was instituted to be the seal was performed. The seed of Israel was brought safely into the land of Canaan. “Let them therefore hereby own the truth of that promise which their fathers had disbelieved, and could not find in their hearts to trust to.” (2.) Because now the threatening of which the suspending of circumcision for thirty-eight years was the ratification was fully executed by the expiring of the forty years. That warfare is accomplished, that iniquity is pardoned (Isa. xl. 2), and therefore now the seal of the covenant is revived again. But why was it not done sooner? why not while they were resting some months in the plains of Moab? why not during the thirty days of their mourning for Moses? Why was it not deferred longer, till they had made some progress in the conquest of Canaan, and had gained a settlement there, at least till they had entrenched themselves, and fortified their camp? why must it be done the very next day after they had come over Jordan? Answ. Because divine Wisdom saw that to be the fittest time, just when the forty years were ended, and they had entered Canaan; and the reasons which human wisdom would have offered against it were easily overruled. [1.] God would hereby show that the camp of Israel was not governed by the ordinary rules and measures of war, but by immediate direction from God, who by thus exposing them, in the most dangerous moments, magnified his own power in protecting them even then. And this great instance of security, in disabling themselves for action just when they were entering upon action, proclaimed such confidence in the divine care for their safety as would increase their enemies’ fears, much more when their scouts informed them not only of the thing itself that was done, but of the meaning of it, that it was a seal of the grant of this land to Israel. [2.] God would hereby animate his people Israel against the difficulties they were now to encounter, by confirming his covenant with them, which gave them unquestionable assurance of victory and success, and the full possession of the land of promise. [3.] God would hereby teach them, and us with them, in all great undertakings to begin with God, to make sure of his favour, by offering ourselves to him a living sacrifice (for that was signified by the blood of circumcision), and then we may expect to prosper in all we do. [4.] The reviving of circumcision, after it had been so long disused, was designed to revive the observance 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 (Deut. xxi. 8), that when they should have 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, Deu 6:1; Deu 12:1. [5.] This second circumcision, as it is here called, was typical of the spiritual circumcision with which the Israel of God, when they enter into the gospel rest, are circumcised; it is the learned bishop Pierson’s observation that this circumcision being performed under the direction of Joshua, Moses’ successor, it points to Jesus as the true circumciser, the author of another circumcision than that of the flesh, commanded by the law, even the circumcision of the heart (Rom. ii. 29), called the circumcision of Christ, Col. ii. 11.

      3. The people’s obedience to these orders. Joshua circumcised the children of Israel (v. 3), not himself with his own hands, but he commanded that it should be done, and took care that it was done: it might soon be despatched, for it was not necessary that it should be done by a priest or Levite, but any one might be employed to do it. All those that were under twenty years old when the people were numbered at Mount Sinai, and not being numbered with them fell not by the fatal sentence, were circumcised, and by them all the rest might be circumcised in a little time. The people had promised to hearken to Joshua as they had hearkened to Moses (ch. i. 17), and here they gave an instance of their dutifulness by submitting to this painful institution, and not calling him for the sake of it a bloody governor, as Zipporah because of the circumcision called Moses a bloody husband.

      4. The names given to the place where this was done, to perpetuate the memory of it. (1.) It was called the hill of the foreskins, v. 3. Probably the foreskins that were cut off were laid on a heap, and covered with earth, so that they made a little hillock. (2.) It was called Gilgal, from a word which signifies to take away, from that which God said to Joshua (v. 9), This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt. God is jealous for the honour of his people, his own honour being so much interested in it; and, whatever reproach they may lie under for a time, first or last it will certainly be rolled away, and every tongue that riseth up against them he will condemn. [1.] Their circumcision rolled away the reproach of Egypt. They were hereby owned to be the free-born children of God, having the seal of the covenant in their flesh, and so the reproach of their bondage in Egypt was removed. They were tainted with the idolatry of Egypt, and that was their reproach; but now that they were circumcised it was to be hoped they would be so entirely devoted to God that the reproach of their affection to Egypt would be rolled away. [2.] Their coming safely to Canaan rolled away the reproach of Egypt, for it silenced that spiteful suggestion of the Egyptians, that for mischief they were brought out, the wilderness had shut them in, Exod. xiv. 3. Their wandering so long in the wilderness confirmed the reproach, but now that they had entered Canaan in triumph that reproach was done away. When God glorifies himself in perfecting the salvation of his people he not only silences the reproach of their enemies, but rolls it upon themselves.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Joshua – Chapter 5

Canaan Alarmed, v. 1

The children of Israel were no more than entered the land of Canaan than the Lord began to prove to them the truth of His many and long-standing promises to make them overcome the Canaanites and give them the land He had promised since the time of Abraham. The effect of the mighty miracle of crossing the Jordan on dry ground had thrown all the tribes of the land, from Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, into consternation. They realized the futility of attempting to stand against Israel, empowered by so great a God. Their hearts melted in fear and they were dispirited, or despaired of successful resistance.

Two things about this passage are of significant note here. First, is the absence of any mention of the Philistines, although they were major inhabitants of the coastal area in later times. It thus seems logical to conclude that these people, who were known to dwell further south around Gerar in the time of the patriarchs, moved into the vacuum created by the defeat and extermination of the Canaanites by Joshua. More about this later. The second thing is the use of the first person pronoun, “we”, indicating that the Book of Joshua was compiled by an Israelite contemporary with the events, very probably Joshua himself.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. And it came to pass when, etc The recognition of the fearful power of God had such an effect upon them that they were astonished and fainted with terror, but it did not incline their minds to seek a remedy for the evil. Their heart was melted inasmuch as destitute of counsel and strength they did not bestir themselves, but in regard to contumacy they remained as hard-hearted as before. We have already seen elsewhere how unbelievers, when smitten with fear, cease not to wrestle with God, and even when they fall, continue fiercely to assail heaven. Hence the dread which ought to have urged them to caution had no other effect than to hurry them on headlong. They were, however, terrified from above for the sake of the people, that victory might be more easily obtained, and the Israelites might be emboldened when they saw they had to do with an enemy already broken and stricken with dismay. Thus God spared their weakness, as if he had opened up the way by removing obstacles, because they had already proved themselves to be otherwise more sluggish and cowardly than was meet. The substance then is, that before the conflict commenced, the enemy were already routed by the terror which the fame of the miracle had inspired.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE PRIESTS AND THE PARTING WATERS

Joshua, Chapters 3, 4 and 5.

And, Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the Children of Israel, and lodged there before they Passed over (Jos 3:1).

THE man upon whom responsibility rests seldom sleeps late. He is not conforming his conduct nor limiting his labors to an eight-hour scheme. Such time-observers are never leaders!

The spies had made their report! The time to strike had come! Valuable time was not to be lost. Joshua, the true captain, is astir. And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host: And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it (Jos 3:2-3). They were now carrying his commands to the people; and the ark, that marvelous symbol, comes into prominence.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ARK

It was the symbol of Divine leadership. For a full discussion of the Ark, we refer the reader to Volume II, Old Testament, page 259. There we discussed its construction and content, its greater spiritual suggestions, and its service and successes. It was between the cherubim, and above the lid enclosing its sacred contents, that the Shekinah glory appearedthe symbol of Gods actual presence.

By a study of the chapter above referred to, it will be seen that the ark rested in the center of the camp, and in an ordinary march was carried at the middle of the procession. Here it takes the place of the van, for it was to be followed, not attended. Then shall ye go after it.

What man dare go to war without the recognition of Divine leadership? If God go before, who fears to follow?

The space between it and Israel, of two thousand cubits by measure, was essential to the certainty of direction. Had it been in the rear, some other leadership would have been required. Had it been in the center, only the very few, within twenty feet of it, could behold the Divine symbol; but at a distance of two thousand cubits, every Israelite would behold and follow.

God is always careful to make his leadership clear. The man who walks in darkness walks there because he has refused to turn his eyes toward the light, and his feet into the path that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

This distance also suggested sacred respect. The ark contained Aarons rod that buddedthe symbol of the miraculous power of Jehovah; a pot of manna symbol of His willingness and ability to provide sustenance to His own; and the tables of the lawa silent voice, more eloquent than thunders, and one that clearly marks the path of righteousness before mens feet; but, above all, the Shekinah gloryevidence of His own presence.

The Ark was a holy thing. It occupied central place in the Holy of Holies and represented the Divine personality in miracle working power, sustaining grace and in righteous guidance. If Moses warned the people against touching any part of the mountain in which God had appeared, lest His holiness flash judgment against their unremitted sins, how necessary that proper distance be put between an unclean people and a perfectly holy God present with the ark. Reverence becomes even the symbol of the Divine presence, and the Shekinah glory was more than symbol. It was the visible expression of personality.

This ark signified the successes to be expected.

In times past, victory had always attended its presence. If God be for us, who can be against us? If God is with us, who dare confront us? When Joshua encouraged the people, saying, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you, he put his trust in that Divine presence, signified by the Ark, which was to go before them, and before which the waters of the Jordan would part, the walls of Jericho would fall, and the land of Canaan would surrender. Is there any amazement that the waters of the Jordan part at the presence of the Ark? Once before those waters have parted, and the rod that the Ark now contains was stretched out over them. At the sight of it they receded. How much more, now, when to the rod is added the pot of manna, the tables of the Law, and the Shekinah glory? Will not the same presence that rolls back the Jordan at a time when its terrific current raced to the Dead Sea, assure success against Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and the Jebusites? Who can fight against God? What army can live when once He has frowned at the same? What walled city can stand when He has spoken against it, and what people dare oppose Him?

SALVATION THROUGH THE ARK

The ark opened passage to promised possessions. When the feet of the priests that bare the Ark were dipped in the brim of the water, * * the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap. How marvelous! And the priests that bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan (Jos 3:17).

Jehovah is not equal to little miracles only. A man might have dried up the Jordan at certain seasons, but not in the time of the harvest, when its banks were overflowing. That is Gods opportunity! That is the time when He elects to prove His power. Our God doeth wondrously! He undertakes the impossible and proves that with Him all things are possible. Mountains and rivers and oceans are not barriers across the path of the men who follow God. Faith causes the first to be removed, causes the second to break and bank up, and causes the third to either vanish or yield to a victor.

In that passage was included every Israelite. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan. God doesnt save a little select company alone. Gods provision of salvation is always adequate, and if any fail it will not be Gods fault.

If by one mans offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life (Rom 5:12; Rom 5:18).

No true believer can perish.

That passage was to be properly memorialized.

Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,

And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests? feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.

Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the Children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the Ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the Children of Israel:

That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the Children of Israel for ever.

And the Children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the Children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.

And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the Ark of the Covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.

For the priests which bare the Ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over (Jos 4:2-10).

Twelve men, representatives of the twelve tribes; twelve men, types of the twelve Apostles; twelve, the use of Gods favorite numeral! Twelve stones, each speaking of a tribe, but all bearing their testimony to Gods interest in every descendant of Israel; and twelve stones that would silently speak to generation after generation through thousands of years, and tell the story of Divine deliverance and of redemption in grace.

THE SPIRITUAL INSIGNIA

The twelve men represented the twelve tribes. God never forgets any people or fails in His promises to any. There was a distinct difference in these tribes, and some of them were of more worthy sires than others, but grace was manifested alike to them all. Fortunately for weak men, God is no respecter of persons. If He has any favorites they are those who need Him most. Christ condemned Pharisees, but received sinners. It matters not to what tribe you belong, you are within the plan of grace and the pale of mercy.

The twelve stones signified the complete salvation. They referred not alone to the successful passage of Jordan, but to the circumstance that all were brought over. At other points you will find recorded deaths and various disasters. Not here! People came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. There is not the record of the loss of one. What an occasion for memorial! No wonder Jehovah said,

When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?

Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.

For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red sea, which He dried up from before us, until we were gone over:

That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever (Jos 4:21-24).

Circumcision signified their complete separation. Chapter five is almost entirely given to the repetition of this ceremony. The phrase, Circumcise again the Children of Israel the second time, does not refer to a second circumcision for the same individuals. One circumcision sufficed. One baptism suffices. One salvation is all that will ever be needed. But the second time referred to the fact that the first circumcision was not experienced by this new generation, and they must come to God as their fathers came. God has no new way of access to His presence, and will adopt no novel plans in the execution of His program. Neither will He consent that the unwilling be excused, or that His commands be compromised. His salvation is for all the people. His significant ceremonies are also for all. It was when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whale. It was when all had been obedient that the reproach of Egypt was taken away. It was when all had been obedient that they were fed on the old corn of the land and the fruit of the conquered country. It was when all had been obedient that the captain of the host of the Lord appeared and manifested more fully both the Divine presence and Gods perfect holiness.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

PREPARATION FOR THE LORDS WAR

CRITICAL NOTES.

Jos. 5:1. Amorites] Deriv. from Amar = high, lofty. The people were dwellers in the mountains (cf. Num. 13:29, and chap. Jos. 11:3). Kurtz and Frst think that the word has an allusion to the large stature of the race: lofty, high-towering, gigantic men. Sometimes, and apparently in this verse, the term Amorites is applied to the inhabitants of the land generally. In chap. Jos. 10:5, the king of Jerusalem, who ruled over Jebusites, is mentioned as one of five kings of the Amorites. Spirit] Lit. breath. The stopping or taking away of the breath is indicative of the extreme astonishment and fear by which they were overwhelmed.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Jos. 5:1

THE FEAR OF THE UNGODLY

In the facts of which this verse assures us, and in the history to which it refers us:

I. We have conviction coming through the manifest working of God.

1. The occasion of mans idolatry and sin is ever found in low and poor thoughts of God. Let God be distant and remote from a mans consciousness, let Him be thought of infrequently and feebly, and the result will soon be seen in a following after other gods. Joshuas predecessor, through whom God was so manifestly present before the Israelites, had not left the people six weeks ere they said unto Aaron, Up, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, we wot not what is become of him. The history of these Canaanites must have contained a similar experience. Sons of Noah though they were, and intense as must have been the religious remembrances of their fathers, Ham and Canaan, the power and goodness and justice and the very being of God had become a mere tradition. On the basis of the Usherian chronology, barely nine hundred years had elapsed since the awful deluge. In the antediluvian age this was only about the period of a lifetime, and if in the subsequent generation the sons of Ham lived as long as the sons of Shema term of some four hundred and thirty yearsCanaan himself would possibly have been living, to teach the fear of the Lord among his descendants, for nearly half the period between the days of the flood and the crossing of the Jordan. Nor had the Canaanites been left without at least one solemn intervening remonstrance. Just about midway between the time of the flood and the entrance of the Israelites into their land, and possibly not fifty years after the death of Canaan, another and an awful judgment had told these people of an all-seeing and omnipotent God, who was determined to punish sin. It was on the families of the Canaanites that God poured out the terrible fire of Sodom and Gomorrah (comp. Gen. 10:19 with Genesis 19) God ought not to have been so absent from the thoughts of these men; but they had long suffered His very name to become merely a story of the past, and on neither name nor story did they trouble themselves much to think. Hence they went after idols, the idols being, as idols always are, the embodiment of the wicked and corrupt desires which ever follow forgetfulness of God, With no consciousness of Gods presence, they had long been led to unrestrained idolatry and unchecked wickedness. He who, in these days, loses the sense of Gods presence and power and goodness and purity, loses all that can keep him from idolatry and its consequent degradations. The very name EMMANUELGod with ustells where our danger most lies, and wherein the blessedness of following Christ so much consists.

2. The manifest interposition of God, in great works for His people, brings conviction to the most hardened and abandoned of men. So long as men only hear of God, they can disbelieve Him, and more or less undisturbedly pursue their own way; but when God works in a manner for which no human hand or name is a sufficient explanation, immediately the unbelieving are arrested. The great cause of all that is different between the disciples of Christ and the unbelieving in the present day is given in the Saviours own wordsYet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more, but ye see Me. The one effort of such modern scientists as are virtually atheists seems to be to account for such works as are too great for man by some other name than that of GOD. If protoplasm could only account for life; if development would but be sufficiently agreeable to stand as an equivalent for its various forms; if the movements of life would only allow themselves to be called automatic; and if human consciousness, which will keep looking upward, and lisping that great word GOD, could only be taught to pronounce the obscure and ugly compound anthropomorphism, then, surely, the world, and even its more wicked sons and daughters, might have peace. True, some of us might still want a long word to explain fulfilled prophecies, and shew us how Nature taught some of her more reverent children to shew us things to come, and to shew them in marvellous fulness of detail seven or eight centuriesnot to say morebefore they came to pass. The more anthropomorphic of us might require a good many Greek vocables, and tax rather tiresomely the patience and scholarship of the learned sons of science to put them pleasantly together, ere we could keep that great word GOD from speaking within and echoing through our consciousness, when we read together, as making one chapter, the well-authenticated works and CLAIMS and CHARACTER of Jesus Christ. There might be a few other things which, in the event of insufficient explanation, we should require to read of in awkward and unnatural phrases ere we could persuade ourselves that they were the outcome merely of Nature. Meanwhile, like the Amorites and Israelites before the divided Jordan, we behold many wonderful works around us in life and behind us in history, for which we can only find one equivalent cause, and that cause GOD.

3. History shews us that when standing immediately before the greater and more manifest works of God, men hare ever felt that from them there was no appeal. At the Red Sea the long enslaved Israelites sang, The Lord is my strength and song. Their history but too sadly proves their readiness to forget Jehovah; they could not but own Him there, and on many similar occasions afterwards. The assembled people on Carmel waited all day in the spirit of judgment; we feel their indecision and unformed conclusions in their very silence. The whole attitude of the host was one of expectancy and waiting. The very act of pronouncing their verdict tells us that they were at least not biessed before it was given. It was only after the laboured failure of the Baalites, the scorn and confidence of Elijah, and after seeing the fire of heaven lick up the water and attack the sacrifice, that they cried with one accord, Jehovah, He is the God. However much he might have doubted before or after, amid the solemn darkness, the rending earthquake, and the awful words of Calvary, the centurion could only feel and say, Truly this was the Son of God. The arrogant Sanhedrin, who thought they had disposed for ever of the Master, and could do as they would in contemning the work of the disciples, when they saw the lame man healed, could say nothing against it. It is easy enough to try and dismiss numberless cases like these by saying that such conclusions of men are not spoken in calmness, but under the influence of excitement and awe. That is the very difficulty. How is it that ever, when the heart stands in awe before unusual power, it remembers God, and is troubled? We can understand the relapse into the normal unbelief when the sounds of the call to faith have died away in the distance. How is it that whenever the supernatural is present, men invariably stand convinced of the unseen God? It is no answer to this question to talk of superstition; when all the talk about superstition is ended, it still remains to be asked, Why should superstition ever lead men into the presence of God, and never choose to leave them elated or abashed before the majesty of Nature? There can be only one answer: The soul is responding to the voice of its Maker, and that Maker is God.

II. We see conviction invariably working fear. Insensibly and instantaneously, as these Canaanites behold the river divided, and remember the overthrow of Sihon and Og, and the miracle at the Red Sea, they are filled with fear of the Lord God of Israel. It is ever thus with those who have forgotten Jehovah, and turned to devices of their own.

1. The fear which comes from ignorance. Not seeing Him who is invisible, men cannot endure the works which declare His presence.

2. Fear as intensified by sin. Sinful Adam heard the voice of God, and, for the first time, so far as we know, he was afraid. When guilty Herod heard of the fame of Jesus, he said, John the Baptist is risen from the dead. Conscience, as Trench has pointed out, is, in its very structure, a solemn word. It is from con and scire. But what does that con intend? Conscience is not merely that which I know, but that which I know with some one else. That other knower whom the word implies is God. So, when we transgress, we have only to be brought by some of His works into the consciousness of the Lords presence, and sin intensifies fear at once. We feel that the guilt which we know, He knows also. And from this law none escape:

What art thou, thou tremendous Power,
Who dost inhabit us without our leave;
And art within ourselves another self,
A master-self, that loves to domineer,
And treat the monarch frankly as the slave?Young.

3. Fear as a Divine provision and ordinance. God had determined and appointed this very melting of heart which the Amorites now suffered. Forty years previously God had said to Moses, about this very trepidation, I will send my fear before thee. The fear of the wicked is no less Gods ordinance now than it was of old.

III. The fear thus wrought by God is seen becoming helpful to speedy salvation, or accessory to sudden destruction. Rahab feared, and believed, and sought deliverance, and was saved; the Canaanites feared, and resisted, and were destroyed. Montaigne said, Fear sometimes adds wings to the heels, and sometimes nails them to the ground, and fetters them from moving. Happy is he in whom the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Where this is not so, fear is often immediately preliminary to overthrow. It is the awful gloom of coming destruction which is seen overshadowing those whom it hardly waits longer to involve, and the very fear of the coming calamity hastens the end which it so solemnly predicts.

OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Jos. 5:1.RELIGIOUS CONVICTION.

I. The essence of true religious conviction is conviction of the presence of God. For want of that, these men had turned idolaters. Had they always felt the God of Israel as near as they felt Him now, the worship of their idols would have been an impossibility. When we get and continue to know and feel that God is round about us, all else in religious life will follow.

1. Assured of Gods presence, we shall immediately feel the reality and guilt of sin. Job said, Now mine eye seeth Thee, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Isaiah in his vision saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and cried, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Peter, beholding the Deity of Christ through His mighty working, started back abashed, saying, Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man. So it has ever been: to see God present is to feel that sin is very real and very offensive.

2. Assured of Gods presence, we have no peace till we feel that sin is put away by forgiveness. With deep and true insight Milton tells us how the prince of darkness was troubled in the presence of holiness

Abashed the devil stood,

And felt how awful goodness is.

So must unforgiven men ever feel troubled by the presence of God. When Peter first saw the Deity of the Saviour, he had no peace in that holy and to him awful presence; after he had been a long time with Jesus, and had learned of Him, and when he was in the rapture or a diviner mood, he cried as he beheld the glory of the transfigured Son of God, Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles. It is only when we have learned the love and forgiveness of the Saviour, and come ourselves somewhat into the mind of Christ, that we are able to endure His presence. Then that presence is no longer our keenest pain, but becomes our deepest peace.

3. A growing sense of Gods presence is the essential accompaniment of a religious life. When Nathanael came to Christ, he came sceptically, nor did he care to conceal his doubts. With that frank guilelessness on which he seems to have prided himself, and which, as far as it was good, even Christ admired, he bluntly told out his unbelief in the question, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? How did the Saviour convict this man of the Divine presence? Christ told him his secrets; He looked into his heart, and exposed this conceit of an open and transparent nature, on which this guileless Jew prided himself, as being so unlike many of his nation. Behold, says the Saviour, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nor was this all; Christ told the honest Jew how he had been praying under that secluded fig-tree, as pious Jews were wont to withdraw for prayerpraying but a short time before, and praying, it may be, about this very matter of the coming Messiah, to which the thoughts of his more godly countrymen were at this time so earnestly directed. It was enough: Nathanael felt that God was there. Very much under the influence which, in a similar case, had made the Samaritan woman exclaim, He told me all things that ever I did, Nathanael cried out, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. Did the Saviour intimate that this conviction was sufficient, and that the matter of this mans new-found faith might rest there? Quite the contrary. Belief was to go on. Christ Himself might withdraw; but to this, as to every truly religious soul, conviction of the Divine presence was to become a growing thing. When Christ as manifest in the flesh was far away, when no one was near, this belief should go on till he could say with his great countryman, Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Thou hast beset me behind and before. Conviction of a present God was to be a growing thing; so Christ says, Your faith now is only the beginning of the faith of the future; you shall see greater things than these. Through my mediatorial work you shall see heaven and earth united. Hereafter yeyou and such as believe with youshall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Thus conviction first feels God near through some extraordinary manifestation; and, given that Gods mercy spares, and His grace still plies the convicted one, the religious life goes on to all its future developments in the consciousness that God is round about it. The first feeling arising from a sense of that Presence is fear, the after feelings are love and joy, while the culmination is peace, even in the grim presence of death: I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. These Canaanites only knew that sense of Gods presence which precedes judgment and destruction: every living man, in the one way or the other, must awake to a sense of that presence sooner or later.

II. The medium of this conviction of Gods presence is Gods working. The Canaanites heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan, and forthwith they believed in a God nigh at hand. (Cf. instances in previous outline.) Jacob beheld the wonders of God in his dream, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. The centurion at the cross, and the jailor of Philippi, looked each on supernatural things, and each at once told out his faith. The chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death, because by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus. The present attempts which are being made in the name of Science to banish Gods working from the faith of men, touch the question of religion in a point most vital and important. Where the arm of the Lord is not revealed, Gods servants still have to ask, Who hath believed our report? Give the name of eternal laws or evolution to account for the works of God; get men to believe that which the terms imply, and then there is no need for God at all. How much we lose, if the arm of the Lord is not revealed to us! Think of Belshazzar and his lords, when they held high carnival in Babylon. It may be that some among the thousand courtiers at the feast only saw the writing on the wall, and not the hand that wrote. But the king saw the part of the hand that wrote: then the kings countenance was changed. To him the words would have an awful meaning. It makes all the difference, in our reading of life around us, whether the arm of the Lord which does the writing is hidden or revealed.

In view of the somewhat lofty tone of some modern scientists it may be allowable to ask, How much right have these who speak most dogmatically to speak on this question at all? It may be remarked:

1. Every man is born with the faculty, or capacity, of spiritual perception. We each come into the world with powers which, if cultivated, will presently enable us to see God. Men are born with capacities for seeing mathematics, poetry, and music; yet the work of a senior wrangler, of Tennyson, or Beethoven, would be utterly incomprehensible to an ordinary farm labourer.

2. Of all human powers of perception, the God-seeing sense is the most refined. Other faculties must be trained by a suitable experience, but this most of all. Let a man live forty or fifty years as if there were no such things as arithmetic, poetry, or music, and, practically, there will be no such things. May it not be so in the matter of these spiritual perceptions? Untaught men cannot look over and read a music score of a dozen staves like Costa and Barnby, or Stainer and Best. Can a man who ignores God year after year be in a position to see God?

3. If not, how utterly incompetent unspiritual men are to pronounce on spiritual things! Some men act as if mental and spiritual insight are identical; why should they be identical, any more than physical and mental perception? Each kind of eve is only good for its own sphere. Some men seem to think that scientific culture and spiritual culture are one and the same thing. They have mistaken spectrum analysis for spiritual vision. It is like using the microscope to find out if there is any music in the Old Hundredth or the Twelfth Mass. It is much the same as climbing to the top of the Matterhorn, where there is a wide outlook, in order to see through a mathematical problem. It is as though a man should take a telescope to try and perceive if his friend loved him, or seize on an opera glass to discover the exquisite pathos of the twenty-third Psalm. The philosophers appear to have forgotten what they of all men should remember,the eye and the world must fit; the power of perception, and the sphere in which it is exercised, must be appropriate. Meanwhile we may feel thankful that men who have given a lifetime to find out God do not pronounce against His existence. We might be alarmed if Abraham and Moses and Isaiah, if John and Peter and Paul, if Luther and Baxter and Wesley, if Newton and Simpson and Farraday joined to say, We have thought on this question reverently and devoutly for many years, we have tried to live in that spiritual purity which is said to be, and which, from the nature of the case, must be necessary in order to see God, and we come to the conclusion that while there may be a God, or may not be, we have no data by which to form any conclusion. Without judging others, it is a matter for devout gladness that in all the pages of history we have no names of men who, having followed after God throughout life in that reverence which alone becomes such a pursuit, and which alone could hope to succeed in finding Him, have turned round at the close of life, and pronounced their faith mistaken. It is at least significant that history as well as Scripture always shews the path of such as one that shineth more and more. This world has tempted many to deny the faith; we cannot recollect that the grave has so tempted one.

A candle wakes some men, as well as a noise; the eye of the Lord works upon a good soul, as well as His hand; and a godly man is as much affected with the consideration, Thou God seest me, as with The Lord strikes me. [Dr. Donne.]

Fear is entirely based on a consideration of some possible personal evil consequence coming down upon me from that clear sky above me. Love is based upon the forgetfulness of self altogether. The very essence of love is that it looks away from itself and to another.
Fill the heart with love, and there is an end to the dominion of fear. The love of God entering into a mans heart, destroys all tormenting fear of Him. All the attributes of God come to be on our side. He that loves has the whole Godhead for Him. [Mac Laren.]

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CRITICAL NOTES.

Jos. 5:2. Sharp knives] Marg. knives of flints (cf. Exo. 4:25). The reason for using stone knives may have been more on account of legal than of physical considerations. The use of iron was certainly forbidden in some covenant rites (cf. Exo. 20:25; Deu. 27:5; chap. Jos. 8:31). [Among the additions of the LXX. at the end of this book is the curious statement after chap. Jos. 24:30 : There they placed with him, in the tomb where they buried him the knives of stone ( ) with which he circumcised the sons of Israel in Gilgal.Dr. Bliss.] The second time] Perhaps the phrase, as is intimated in the verses which follow, has regard to the circumcising, at two different periods, or times, of the entire host of men now assembled in Canaan. Mentally, the host is divided into two parts, which are circumcised some at one time, some at another; the time of the earlier circumcision was in Egypt, and the second time of circumcision was this at Gilgal. The reference made by Masius to two general circumcisions, one at the time of the introduction of the rite by Abraham, and the other here, an idea often noticed since, appears too remote, and is rather opposed than otherwise to the fourth and fifth verses. A similar use of this phrase occurs in Isa. 11:11.

Jos. 5:4. This is the cause] The cause of this general circumcision is stated at length, the explanation reaching to the close of Jos. 5:7. The reason why the rite had been omitted during the sojourn in the wilderness is given in Jos. 5:6. The people had broken the covenant, and the Lord sware that He would not shew them the land. The oath of the wilderness cancelled for the time the oath to Abraham, and Jehovah would not allow the people to set the oath that was suspended over against the oath which was in force.

Jos. 5:9. The reproach of Egypt] Not necessarily any one phase of the reproach arising out of their past relation to Egypt, but the reproach in all its forms. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal] Marg. = rolling. It denotes liberty: they looked on themselves as freed from the miseries which they had undergone (Josephus, Ant. v. 1. 11). All objections (of the rationalists) indicate an utter inattention to the fact that most of the O.T. etymologies contain allusions to words and their meaning, rather than such full explanations of them as befit a lexicon (Keil).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Jos. 5:1-9

THE RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT

Probably there is nothing throughout the entire book of Joshua which appeals to us more solemnly and more graciously than this most significant resumption of covenant rites at this particular period. The account of the giving of this covenant is contained in Genesis 15. At that time Abraham had no children, and the covenant was sealed on the side of God only, the vision of the burning lamp being its sign. Some fourteen or fifteen years later, when Ishmael was thirteen years old, the covenant was renewed, or rather completed, the seal on the human side being circumcision. The covenant was, that Abraham should have a numerous seed to inherit the land, of Canaan, or, as it was sometimes called, the Promised Land. Here, then, at the very time of entering into the land, the rite is renewed. The land can only be taken possession of under the covenant. Not an enemy shall fall, not a town capitulate, not an acre shall be really their own, till that covenant is recognised by all Israel.

I. The relation between Gods covenant and His peoples transgression. The rite of circumcision had been faithfully observed in Egypt; the rite had not been observed in the wilderness (Jos. 5:4-5). This neglect during the wilderness life was, almost certainly, not because of any difficulties of journeying, for the people sometimes encamped for an entire year in one place. The reason for the cessation of circumcision lay in the fact that the people had ignored the covenant itself. They had said with almost one voice, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. They deliberately rejected the covenant then and there. At the same time God rejected them. For the time the covenant was suspended. The sixth verse, therefore, connects the cessation of circumcision with the Lords counter-oath. God would not have the people guilty of a solemn farce. Every act of circumcision in the wilderness would ignore this later oath of Jehovah. As confirmatory of this, it should be remembered that the passover was probably not observed in the wilderness any more than circumcision. Israel had been told to keep the passover as an ordinance for ever. At the end of the first year, before the rebellion, they did keep it at Sinai (cf. Num. 9:1-5). Apparently they did not observe it afterwards till the occasion mentioned in this chapter. Here, then, is a most significant break. There is no feast of the Exodus, for the Exodus had been ignored; there is no rite of the covenant, for the covenant had been foresworn. What bearing has all this on us?

1. See what God thinks of services that are unreal. God would have no feast of the Exodus from the people who said, Let us return unto Egypt; God would have no covenant rite from the people who thought indifferently of the covenant. Both feast and rite would be hollow and false, and a mockery. How this old sermon of the desert comes preaching itself on to us, across all the centuries which roll between us and these ancient servants of Jehovah. Think of it in connection with all the worship in which we fail to worship Him. Think of it in connection with many of the hymns which we join in singing, the prayers which we offer, and the heartless service which some are tempted to render. Think of the Lords Supperthe feast of the new covenantif there be no real covenant between us and God. God would have no service from us rather than a service which is unreal. He seeks the heart. Sham adoration is no pleasure to Him (cf. Isa. 1:11-15).

2. See how solemn and sacred is Gods view of His own promises. All the time the covenant was in force the covenant rite was to be observed. The bondage of Egypt made no difference. Unlike men, God does not think His promises something to take notice of in proportion as they look promising. Difficulties and bonds and slavery made no difference whatever in the sight of God. In Egypts darkest days they were still to circumcise their children. But they were not to celebrate that rite a day after the rebellion. God would not have two sets of promises in force at the same time, one of which contradicted the other. Oh, how sacred to Him is His holy word! It is all yea, and all amen. It is said that Sir William Napier one day met a poor child crying bitterly because she had broken a bowl which she had been carrying along the road towards her home. Having no money with him, he promised to meet her at the same place and hour on the next day, and to give her money to buy another. On reaching his home, he found an invitation to dine out with a gentleman whom he particularly wished to see. As it would interfere with his pre-engagement with the child, he declined it, saying, I could not disappoint her, she trusted me so implicitly. God loves our implicit trust, too; but, excepting where He has made it thus conditional, the fulfilment of His word does not depend on our confidence. Each promise stands fast in His own eternal truthfulness.

3. This history suggests the question, Does God, when we sin, regard His covenant with us in Christ as broken? The history indicates the answer as clearly as it prompts the inquiry. It was not for every sin that God looked on the covenant as violated; it was only for this deliberate rejection of the covenant. The people often sinned, but it was only when they proposed to return to Egypt, and voted the covenant of no account, that God took them at their thought and word. So he who looks on Christ as without form or comeliness, and thus carelessly neglects and ignores the Saviour for the pleasures of sin, puts himself in a similar position, and where God has no covenant with him personally. No transgression is so fatal as unbelief.

4. Salvation is not in the covenant, but in the grace and love of God. It is very blessed to be able to feel that even when God regarded the covenant as solemnly broken by the people, His mercy was sufficient for all the way of the wilderness. Think of it, a broken covenant, and manna every morning; a broken covenant, and water from the rock; a broken covenant, and the man who wanted to curse, crying successively, How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob; How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! Think of it, no covenant, and the ark built prospectively, in view of its renewal; no covenant, and the pillar in which the Lord abode going with them all the way; no covenant, and the trespass of Baal-peor forgiven; no covenant, and mercies that should make way for the song, What ailed thee, O Jordan, that thou wast driven back? God loves us enough to bless and help and save us, if there were not a single promise in the Bible. He does not propose to go on with our salvation because He has become entangled in His words; the promises are but given to still our fears and encourage us by hope and assurance. As for our salvation, that is ever in the grace and love of God.

II. The relation between a renewed covenant and fresh acts of faith and submission. The covenant was to be renewed by a rite which would, for some days, disable the greater part of the army in the very presence of their enemies (cf. Gen. 34:25). Too much stress, however, must not be laid on this. There would still be about a quarter of a million men between forty and sixty years of age, who were circumcised in Egypt, left to guard the camp. Still, man for man, these Israelites were probably not to be compared to their disciplined and warlike enemies, and the state of the camp would seriously encumber their operations in the event of an attack. Perhaps faith was still more tried in the trial of their patience. This time must have seemed the best of all times to press forward. The two spies had reported that their enemies hearts had failed them, and since then Jordan had divided to disconcert them even more. At the very moment when victory would seem easy, God detains them for one or two weeks.

1. Getting into union with God does not mean getting into a state of freedom from trial. He whom God brings near to Himself may even have to hear his Lord say, I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my names sake.

2. Neither does union with God mean liberty to follow our own ideas and wishes. The Divine teaching in this hour of covenant mercy went on to say, Wait on the Lord; sink your thoughts and desires in His.

3. Union with God means that God is to be first in everything. There is always time to worship and serve and honour Him.

III. The relation between a restored covenant and fitness for conflict. Israel was to stay and seek fresh union with God before attempting to fight a single battle. The position is strikingly similar to that of the apostles, to whom Christ said, Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. So were these ancient servants to tarry in the camp at Gilgal.

1. If we would work for God successfully, we must seek the help of God. Israel was repeatedly taught this. When the siege of Jericho did begin, God shewed them that He must be all in all. The same truth was taught in a different way shortly afterwards at Ai. So all our conflict and service for Christ must fail, without God for our strength. He who would often win in the fight must often and personally reconsecrate himself to God.

2. The rule is equally absolute in our personal contest against sin. Israel learned to say in after days, I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. God had so often helped them from the hills, as at Rephidim and Sinai and Carmel, that even their enemies had come to believe The Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys. It was not wonderful, with such a history, that the Israelites came to feel that everything depended on the presence of God. Let us not seek to enter into conflict with sin, unmindful of His word, who says, Without Me ye can do nothing. The battle will be too hard for the best of us without Jesus.

IV. The relation between an intact covenant and the removal of our reproach. The name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day, meaning a rolling away, or, as Josephus prefers to render it, liberty, still giving the idea of being no longer in bondage to this reproach. What was this reproach of Egypt? It is by no means necessary to contend, as some have done, for one selected phase of the reproach. It may be taken as bearing in at least three directions.

1. There was the reproach of the long bondage itself. The Israelites had sojourned in Egypt for more than two hundred years, and during the greater part of that time they had been treated as slaves. God had now rolled away this reproach; they were free, and were henceforth to be a nation themselves.

2. There was the reproach which came of their lunging to return to Egypt. In this longing the covenant had been broken, and in the rite which renewed the covenant, telling, as it did, of Divine forgiveness, the reproach, in this aspect also, was rolled away.

8. Then there was the reproach of the Egyptians themselves (cf. Exo. 32:12; Num. 14:13-16; Deu. 9:28). All these reproaches were removed by the covenant. Bunyan tells us of the burden which rolled away as Christian looked upon the cross. The blood of the everlasting covenant can alone assure us of the rolling away of the reproach of sin.

V. The relation between Gods recognised covenant and His peoples triumphant inheritance. When the covenant was once restored, the inheritance was only a question of time. No enemies against whom the people should be divinely led would be able to withstand them. If God be for us, who shall be against us? We, too, in all our struggles and fightings, may come off more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Jos. 5:2-3.DIVINE THOUGHTS ON HUMAN SERVICE.

I. While Divine wisdom takes account of human ideas of urgency, Gods ways are ever above the ways of men. Men would feel this an unsuitable time and place to perform a rite which would disable all in the army under forty years of age. Men would feel that this time of fear on the part of enemies was the very season in which to press forward. God usually works by what we term natural means. Ordinarily He moves to the accomplishment of His purposes in ways which seem best adapted to secure the desired issues. To overcome the Midianites with Gideons three hundred men, to inflict terror on the Philistines, and slay them in multitudes by a single man, as by Samson, or as by Jonathan and his armour-bearer, are exceptional and not usual instances of Divine working. Yet when God would lay special emphasis on particular teachings, He often departs from plans and ways which seem best to us. He who serves under God must not wonder if he sometimes comes to places where his own favourite ideas and cherished plans have to be set aside.

II. All successful work for God supposes submission and self-denial on the part of His people. The way to possess the land is His way, not ours. His way may disappoint us, and may be a way of suffering, but it has possessions at the end: our way may seem easy and more natural, yet it leads to nothing but shame and confusion of face. The meek shall inherit the earth. The words, Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt, may lead to the cross; they also lead to the riven sepulchre and to the ascension, and make way for the song, He shall reign for ever and ever. He who thus sank His will in the will of Heaven said, ere He left us, If any man serve ME, him will my Father honour.

III. God, who leads His people to wars and fightings, loves first to animate and strengthen them for the conflict. The Israelites, through their own sin, had to endure the toil and sorrows of the wilderness, feeling that the covenant was set aside. They would breathe as in a new atmosphere now that they were again taken into union with God. They would go up to fight, having their arms nerved by promises of victory, made not only to them, but to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

IV. The first of all our religious duties is to become reconciled to God. Nothing is acceptable from us till we ourselves are accepted. The rite of the covenant, in which the people gave themselves again to God, made fit way for the feast of the passover. No amount of going to the house of God, no constancy in hymn-singing, Bible-reading, or religious work, can be acceptable to God from any man or woman who still rejects Christ.

The path of duty is the path of safety; and it is impossible for any soul to be injured while walking in the way of obedience. [Clarke.]

The Israelites were now circumcised for three reasons:

1. To shew that they held, and would continue in, the same faith with their father Abraham, to whom this sign was first given.
2. That they would be separated from the wicked manners of the heathen Canaanites, into whose land they were now come, and would have nothing in common with them.
3. For the mystery which was chiefly respected herein, viz., our Jesus bringing of us into the land of life, by our drawing the sword, and fighting as it were with ourselves. [Ferus.]

Jos. 5:4-7.QUALIFICATIONS FOR RELIGIOUS ORDINANCES.

Consider:

I. The celebration of religious ordinances as independent of outward surroundings. All the people that came out were circumcised. Nothing in Egypt disqualified them for those rites of formal service incidental to the dispensation of the first covenant. The spirit of religions service is ever the same. That being so, we see that

1. Slavery is no disqualification for participating in ordinances. The Israelites were in a bitter bondage; that made no difference to the liberty which they had in God. The Lords Supper, ten years ago, might be partaken as acceptably to God by Christian slaves in the Southern States of America, as by any free citizen of the freest nation upon earth. The baptism of a bondsman may be as much a baptism into Christ as that of a freeman. In thus drawing near to God,

Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage.

2. Poverty is no disqualification. The Israelites could call very little their own, but they might approach God in the rites which He had appointed. The poorest of Christian communicants is no farther from the Saviour because of his poverty. It is said that the late Duke of Wellington was on one occasion taking the Lords Supper in the country, when a poor labourer in a smockfrock, not knowing who he was, came and knelt beside him. As one of the churchwardens whispered to the labourer to retire, the Duke, noticing the action, turned and said, Let him remain; we are all equal here. Even so: the liberty of Gods children knows no limitation from poverty.

3. Persecution and contempt are no disqualification. The Hebrews in Egypt could not call even their children their own; it made no difference before God that they were smitten and despised of men. Our liberty to serve and follow the Saviour does not stand in the good opinion of our fellows.

4. Mental degradation is no disqualification. The abject state of these men, who on leaving Egypt were so untutored and debased by bondage, was not one jot off from their religious freedom. Even in Egypt they administered to each other the rites of the covenant. The Education Act is a great boon to many as earthly citizens; no man needs it as a preliminary to intercourse with the Saviour.

5. Ecclesiastical deficiencies are no disqualification. The tribe of Levi was not then set apart for religious ministration. There was no high priest, no priest at all, no ecclesiastic of any kind; and yet, in this most ritualistic dispensation, even that made no difference. All the people that came out were circumcised. The ordinance was not dependent on priestly administration. Many religious men in the present day are claiming large prerogatives as to the intercourse of their fellow-men with God. These men claim an essential place of mediation between each ordinary worshipper and his God. Perhaps no Scripture is more pressed and distorted than the verse (Joh. 20:23), Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained. The circumstances under which these words were spoken are conveniently forgotten by those who press for auricular confession and mediatorial prerogatives. At the time when the Saviour uttered these words, there were no written words of the new dispensation to guide anxious men and women who wished to know if their sins were forgiven. The Gospel, upon which we can so readily fall back to help us in our anxieties, was not a word of it written. It is almost impossible for us, with all our light, to mentally put ourselves in the position of a man who, under the new preaching of John the Baptist and the apostles, might come to cry out in an agony of spirit for some assurance that he was forgiven. So the extraordinary power bestowed on the apostles was not even the outcome of their official position, but of the urgent needs of the anxious. Jesus breathed on the apostles, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit was so to guide them, that they should be able to pronounce to the anxious whether God had forgiven them or not. The men who felt sin an intolerable burden, and who had no written Gospel to go to, as we have, might go to these God-guided men, and they in turn should be so infallibly directed, that where they declared sin remitted, it should be remitted, and where they pronounced it retained, it should be retained. In other words, they should be so instructed as to declare the mind of God on each particular case. We even see something of the exercise of this prerogative by the apostles. To the agonised jailer of Philippi, Paul says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. On the other hand, Peter says to the commercial Simon Magus, Thy money perish with thee. The delivering unto Satan, of which Paul speaks, was probably simply the exercise of this declarative power. Other instances might be named, and these expounded in fuller detail; they should be enough to shew how utterly untenable is the priestly rendering of the verse in question. Even the ritual of the Old Testament gives no such place to men as this. There might be no priests; religious ordinances might be administered notwithstanding.

II. The disqualification for religious ordinances arising from unforgiven sin. All the people that were born in the wilderness. they had not circumcised. The reason for this is stated at length in the sixth verse. On account of the rebellion, God had sworn a punishment which should endure to the end of the forty years. During that time there might be no circumcision at all. All the bondage of Egypt could not break in upon their glorious liberty as the children of God; what all the tyranny of Egypt could never accomplish, their personal sin had wrought in a single day.

1. Wilful disobedience in any one thing is the rebellion of the heart. We are apt to measure our disobedience to God by the magnitude of the things in which we fail to yield. We persuade ourselves that the thing is small, and that therefore the sin is small. The sin is that we have dared to disobey. One wilful sin carries with it all the heart into an act of disobedience; it is the rebellion of the whole man, until the sin is realised and confessed and abandoned.

2. The heart that is in rebellion against God cannot worship God. It is a contradiction. It is playing at adoration, and indulging in practical despising. It is an endeavour to mix absolute and essential opposites.

3. God sometimes sees it well to punish sin even after repentance. Many of the Israelites doubtless repented of their transgression. Even this repentance may have been largely owing to the penalty of forty years wandering which God had sworn to inflict. If the penalties of sin could be all averted, and immediately averted, by our repentance, a premium would be put on guilt by the cheap facilities with which its painful consequences might be avoided whenever we chose.

III. The distinction made in the history between judicial pardon and Divine love. The sin could not be said to be forgiven while the punishment continued. Judicially, the offence was not put away till the penalty was withdrawn. But Gods love was every day proclaiming itself through all the forty years. The mercies which were new every morning were telling of forgiveness in the Divine heart.

1. The suffering which men feel on account of sin is no evidence that God does not love them. Given that a man has to trace his trials to his transgressions, there is still much to proclaim that God is love, and that God loves him.

2. To walk gratefully in the sense of Gods love is to have the promise that any present suffering for sin will be ultimately put away. Just as every year in which the Israelites walked in submission to God, and in the consciousness that He loved them still, told of an ever-narrowing margin to that life in the wilderness; so he who yields where he has rebelled, and rejoices in Divine mercy, may contemplate the time when the love of God will remove all his present suffering. Even the cross of Christ may not at once put away the penalties of past transgressions; yet, to accept Christ crucified is to know the love and to have the promise of the salvation of God.

Where God speaks, it matters not whether we read prophecy or history; they are ever alike. Thirty-eight years before, the sentence had gone out against every living man of the host, saving Caleb and Joshua; it is only a matter of course that we read here, All the men of war died in the wilderness.
The fact that the fulfilment of Gods word is recorded so quietly, and that it excites in us so little surprise, assures us of the absolute truthfulness of Divine words, and of our inward acquiescence in their statements.

Divine promises are not more sure than Divine threatenings. The graves of the rebels are as certainly found in the wilderness as the homes of the obedient are found in Canaan. When all the theories of men on the improbability of final punishment have been elaborately expounded and carefully proved, hell will still remain as sure as heaven; the lake of fire, though ever so figurative, will be seen to have as much reality as the sea of glass like unto crystal, or the streets of pure gold. During those thirty-eight years which followed the sentence on Israel, there would have been time and room for a great many sermons on Num. 14:28-35, in which some of the gentlest hearts and noblest spirits might have clearly proved the mercy of God, and the improbability of so many deaths in so short a time. For all that, when the years had ended, there were exactly as many graves in the wilderness as had been predicted.

Jos. 5:4.FRUITS OF SIN.

I. Sin as the cause of our disappointments. The Lord sware that He would not shew them the land.

II. Sin as the occasion of much of our poverty. The Lord would not give them the land flowing with milk and honey.

III. Sin as the instrument of death. They were consumed because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord.

IV. Sin as revealing Divine mercy even more than Divine anger. The deaths were spread over forty years. Space was given for repentance, and opportunity offered for securing eternal life. Gods anger is not vindictive; it has little in common with the anger of men; it waits to save with an everlasting salvation; if it destroy some suddenly, it generally appears that these are so evil that they will probably prevent the repentance of others. Thus the very anger of God seems rooted and grounded in love.

Jos. 5:7.DIVINE PATIENCE AND MERCY.

I. The Lords independence of particular men. If the fathers failed, He would raise up the children.

II. The Lords steady persistence in His purposes. Although the generation then living had proved themselves unfit for Canaan, God would not be defeated in His promise to Abraham.

III. The Lords abundant and stately patience. One day with Him is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

IV. The Lords merciful beginning with individual men. The children of the slain are permitted to begin their new life in the full covenant rights which their fathers had once enjoyed.

Jos. 5:9.REPROACH ROLLED AWAY.

I. The reproach of man is ever of men and by men.

1. It has its occasion in mans sin.
2. It is ever ministered by men: God, who upbraideth not, is said to cause those who sin to be a reproach, and to bring reproach upon them; but He Himself reproaches not. The word partakes of the idea of taunting, and God could not descend to that. It is men, who also have sinned, who reproach their fellows when suffering for sin.

II. The effectual rolling away of reproach is ever of God. The Scriptures abound with records of prayers to God to take away reproach, of praises to God for taking it away, or of Gods assurances that He will deliver His people, and vindicate them against those who have held them in contempt. It is only God who dares to say, I will blot out thy transgressions.

III. The removal of mans reproach should lead to the perpetuation of Gods praise. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day. The place was named after the mercy, thus declaring the goodness of the Lord throughout many generations. What memorials should we raise for the rolling away of our reproach on Calvary! The Israelites had only Gilgal; we have Golgotha. Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, who has taken ours away, that it should be remembered against us no more for ever.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

The Covenant of Circumcision Jos. 5:1-9

And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard 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 sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.
3 And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.
4 And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.
5 Now all the people that came out were circumcised; but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.
6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that Were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that he would not show them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
7 And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.
8 And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, 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 the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

1.

Who were the kings of the Amorites? Jos. 5:1

The kings of the Amorites were the lords of the various cities located west of the Jordan River. The word Amorite means specifically the high one, and it is generally supposed that the Amorites were highlanders (Num. 13:29; Deu. 1:7; Deu. 1:20; Jos. 10:6). Many of the cities of the Canaanites were located in high places, and this is probably a reference to the kings who ruled in the hill country. They were undoubtedly those kings which joined together in the southern coalition as they went out to fight against Joshua.

2.

What light is thrown on the question of authorship by this reference? Jos. 5:1 b

Both the King James Version and the American Standard Version translate the phrase, until we were passed over. Some variations of meanings are found which would cause the translation to be, until they were passed over. The majority of texts point to the first person plural form of the verb, and this is an indication that the book was written by an Israelite who was among the multitude who crossed over into the land of Canaan. Joshua would certainly fit this description, and this is substantiatory evidence of his being the author of the book.

3.

Why was it necessary to stop for the circumcision of the people? Jos. 5:2

When the people came out of Egypt, all of them had been circumcised, as distinctly affirmed in verse five. During their journey through the wilderness, circumcision had been neglected. Since a new generation had arisen, the nation was no longer circumcised, and therefore it was necessary that circumcision should be performed upon all the men who had been born in the wilderness. This was an inviolable commandment; and if Joshua were to keep the Law perfectly, it was an act which had to be performed. It was necessary for the people to be circumcised before they could eat of the Passover. This was especially specified, as Moses gave the directives about the first Passover (Exo. 12:48).

4.

Why had circumcision been neglected in the wilderness? Jos. 5:4

As the covenant of the Lord with the fathers was broken, the sons of the rejected generation were not to receive the covenant sign of circumcision. Nevertheless, this abrogation of the covenant with the generation which had been condemned was not a complete dissolution of the covenant relation, so far as the nation as a whole was concerned. The whole nation had not been rejected, but only the generation of men who were capable of bearing arms when they came out of Egypt. The younger generation who had grown up in the desert were to be delivered from the ban. Some students of the Scriptures have suggested that the people did not have time to perform the rite of circumcision since the people were constantly on the march through the wilderness. A close study of their journey will reveal they were at some forty-one different places and they wandered for nearly forty years. They had an average of almost a year to spend in each place. They surely had time to take care of this important matter if they had been so inclined. They must have felt that since they had disobeyed God and were doomed to die in the wilderness it would be a mockery for them to keep this sign of the covenant.

5.

How many were circumcised? Jos. 5:5

The number of persons to be circumcised is estimated, by some, at a million. According to the general laws of population, the whole of the male population of Israel, which contained only 601,730 of twenty years of age and upwards, besides 23,000 Levites of a month old and upwards, when the census was taken a short time before in the steppes of Moab, could not amount to more than three million in all. Of these between birth and sixty years of age perhaps one half were thirty-eight years old. They would have been born before the sentence was pronounced upon the nation at Kadesh, and for the most part before the exodus from Egypt. These had already been circumcised. Consequently, the proportion between the circumcised and the uncircumcised was one to two. The operation could, therefore, be completed without any difficulty in the course of a single day.

6.

How could Canaan be a land of milk and honey? Jos. 5:6

Their food was produced where grass and flowers abound. These provided nectar for the bees. It was well-watered and good for grazing cattle, sheep, and goats (Exo. 3:8; Exo. 3:17; Exo. 13:5; Lev. 20:24; Num. 13:27; Deu. 6:3; Deu. 32:14; Jdg. 14:8; Mat. 3:4). These animals would produce milk, and thus it could be said that the land literally flowed with milk and honey. The expression is a quaint way of saying that it was a highly productive land.

7.

How long did the men remain in the camp? Jos. 5:8

The Scripture says the men stayed in their camp till they were whole. This was probably at least a period of three days since we learn from other records that the rite of circumcision left the men sore for at least this long a period of time (Gen. 34:25). Such was the case in the days of Jacob and his sons when the men of Shechem submitted to the ordinance. The time they stayed in their camp would have hardly been much longer than this inasmuch as they did participate in the Passover which fell on the fourteenth day of the first month, The people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and there would thus be only a four-day period between these two events,

8.

What was the reproach of Egypt? Jos. 5:9

Two unsatisfactory suggestions have been made, as follows:

a.

As slaves (Gen. 34:14; 1Sa. 17:26)

b.

As taunted (Exo. 32:12; Num. 14:13-16; Deu. 9:28)

The reproach probably was the sentence which rested on Israel as the nation was condemned to wander restlessly about and to die in the wilderness. The reproach was involved in the thoughts and sayings of those who would believe that the Lord had brought the Israelites out of Egypt to destroy them in the desert (Exo. 32:12; Num. 14:13; Num. 14:16; Deuteronomy 28). This was constantly on the mind of Moses, and he made reference to it as apparent failure repeatedly faced the nation he was leading. After they had crossed over into the Promised Land, there was no more danger of this happening; and so the reproach was rolled away from them.

9.

Where was Gilgal? Jos. 5:9 b

The word Gilgal means rolling. The name was given to the place as a means of recalling what had transpired at that point. The place was also known as the hill of the foreskins (Jos. 5:3) or Gibeath-haaraloth. The place must not have been far from Jericho, for it was here that the Israelites first encamped after they crossed the Jordan. It was here that they set up the twelve stones as a memorial, and it was here that they made preparations to attack Jericho. Two other places in the Promised Land bear the name; one is known as the Gilgal of Elijah and Elisha (2Ki. 2:1-2; 2Ki. 4:38). This was a locality some four miles away from Bethel and Shiloh in the hill country of Ephraim. There is another spot known as regal Gilgal in the American Standard Version (Jos. 12:23). This reference speaks of the king of Goiim in Gilgal, and it is believed that the Goiim probably means the nomadic nations who had been driven away by Joshua and settled in a particular unknown spot in Canaan.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

V.

(1) The Amorites . . . and . . . Canaanites.Two principal nations seem to be here mentioned as representatives of the rest.

We.See Note on Jos. 5:6.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(205:9) It would seem that these verses all belong to one section. The use of the first person in Jos. 5:1, until we were passed over, is most naturally explained by taking the verse as part of what the Israelites were to say to their children by the command of Joshua. The difficulty has been met in the Hebrew Bible by a Masoretic reading, in which they is substituted for we. But the more difficult reading is to be preferred. There is nothing else in the section that creates any difficulty. The twenty-third verse authorises a comparison between the passage of Jordan and the passage of the Red Sea. As the one is called a baptising unto Moses, in the New Testament, we may call the other a baptising unto Joshua. (Comp. the us in Jos. 4:23, with the we of Jos. 5:1.) The first person also appears in Jos. 4:6, that he would give us. It would appear that, besides explaining the erection of the stones, the Israelites were also to explain to their children the meaning of Gilgal, the place where the stones were, and this explanation is not completed until the end of Jos. 4:9.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

CONSTERNATION OF THE CANAANITES, Jos 5:1.

1. It came to pass Immediately after the Israelites had crossed, the miracle was heralded to all the kings of the land. This verse is closely related to the last verse of the preceding chapter, showing how the miracle of the Jordan at once made the neighbouring nations know the power of Jehovah’s hand. It also serves to show why Joshua might, without fear of attack, embrace this opportunity to circumcise the people.

Amorites See note on Jos 2:10.

On the side of Jordan westward Literally, beyond Jordan seaward. The Amorites east of the Jordan, ruled by Sihon and Og, had been already defeated.

The Canaanites, which were by the sea The various heathen tribes and nations along the Mediterranean Sea. A narrow plain extends along this sea from Gaza in the south to the northern limits of Phenicia. The Amorites and Canaanites, because of their superiority in numbers and political power, are put here apparently for all the nations of the land.

We were passed over This expression naturally implies that the writer was an eye-witness of the scene described.

Their heart melted Their hope and courage died within them, for they despaired of conquering an almighty foe.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Commentary on The Book of Joshua – chapters 5-8.

In this section the circumcision of the men of Israel is accomplished, followed by the observance of the Passover. Then commences the initial parts of the invasion. First Jericho is taken, and then a contingent moves up the pass to capture Ai, only to be driven back because of their arrogance in taking only a limited number of soldiers for the purpose. As a result the sin of Achan is discovered in that he had kept for himself what had been dedicated to YHWH. Joshua having repented of his failure, and Achan having been dealt with for his blasphemy, Joshua takes the whole army back up the pass and Ai is captured, and the army of Bethel defeated. Joshua then arranges a covenant ceremony at Shechem.

Chapter 5. Circumcision and Passover – The Captain of YHWH’s Host.

The Canaanites having been devastated by learning of the passage of the children of Israel through Jordan, Joshua is ordered to circumcise such of the people of Israel as were uncircumcised, so that they might eat the Passover, which they were now to observe. Meanwhile, the people having a sufficiency of corn from the land, the manna ceased. As Joshua was considering how to take Jericho a man appeared who said that he was the captain of the host of YHWH, who encouraged and directed him as to what to do with regard to the conquest of the land, and particularly of Jericho.

Jos 5:1

‘ And so it was that when all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that YHWH 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.’

News of the crossing of Jordan had reached the ears of the Amorites and the Canaanites east of Jordan, that is those in Canaan itself. The fact that the Canaanites are described as ‘by the sea’ suggests that at this stage the Philistines had not yet arrived. The news devastated them. This confirmed all that they had heard about the God of these people, and His amazing power. They were filled with fear and lost heart, terrified of the prospect that they must now face. God had thus sent His hornet to prepare the way (Exo 23:28; Deu 7:20 compare Jos 24:12). These descriptions were intended to signify all the peoples in Canaan, both the Canaanites who were the plain dwellers and the Amorites who were mountain dwellers.

“Until we were passed over.” The ‘we’ indicates that the writer was alive at the time of the crossing of the Jordan, and there is no sound reason for doubting that almost the whole book comes from his hand. It would probably be some priestly scribe to whom Joshua committed the task of recording the victories of YHWH, at least partially under his direction.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Men of Israel Are Circumcised Jos 5:1-12 records the circumcision of the men of Israel who came out of the forty-year wilderness journey

Jos 5:1  And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard 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.

Jos 5:1 Comments – This fear in the hearts of the Canaanites was a fulfilment of God’s promise to the children of Israel while in the wilderness. This was prophesied in the Song of Moses (Exo 15:14). It was also prophesied by Moses while at Mount Sinai (Exo 23:27).

Exo 15:14, “The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.”

Exo 23:27, “I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.”

Jos 5:2  At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.

Jos 5:2 Comments – This new generation of Israel needed circumcision just as their fathers. Each individual must enter into the covenant with the Lord, just as today each member of the church much make their own personal commitment to Christ, whether their parents were saved or not.

Jos 5:6  For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Jos 5:6 “men of war” Comments – The generation that was consumed in the wilderness was the men of war, and not necessarily the women and children (Num 14:29).

Num 14:29, “Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,”

Jos 5:9  And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

Jos 5:9 Word Study on “Gilgal” PTW says the name “Gilgal” means, “rolling.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Circumcision of the People

v. 1. And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of the Jordan westward, the mighty heathen nations which occupied chiefly the mountainous section of Canaan, for among these the Amorites were the strongest, and all the kings of the Canaanites which were by the sea, the heathen nations occupying the lowlands in the neighborhood of the Mediterranean Sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, for it is an eye-witness who is relating this story, that their heart melted, dissolved in apprehension and terror, neither was there spirit in them any more, they lost the last vestige of courage, because of the children of Israel. It was the terror of the Lord which fallen upon them, causing all life and energy to be taken from them.

v. 2. At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, literally, knives of stone, made with a very sharp cutting edge, used extensively at that time, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. As the people that came out of Egypt had been circumcised, so now there was to be a circumcision of the new generation, by which the solemn rite was solemnly reintroduced.

v. 3. And Joshua made him sharp knives and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins, for the place was later known as Gibeah-haaraloth, because the foreskins were buried there.

v. 4. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise, why the Lord’s order went forth to Joshua, and the latter had the order executed: All the people that came out of Egypt that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, in the course of the desert journey, after they came out of Egypt, Num 14:29; Deu 2:16.

v. 5. Now, all the people that came out were circumcised, the rite having been observed with all strictness in Egypt; but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, the entire journey in the wilderness being included under this heading, them they had not circumcised.

v. 6. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, mustered as being able to bear arms in battle, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord; unto whom the Lord sware that He would not show them the land which the Lord sware unto their fathers that He would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey, Num 14:23. The extraordinary fertility of the country is here once more emphasized, as so often in the Old Testament, Exo 3:8-17; Exo 13:5; Exo 16:14; Lev 20:24; Num 13:27; Deu 1:3. The meadow-lands of Canaan, with their rich carpet of grasses and flowers, were well suited for the raising of herds and flocks, while the bees found the abundance of fragrant flowers with their rich nectar eminently satisfactory for the production of honey.

v. 7. And their children, whom He raised up in their stead, the Lord had them take the place of those who were fallen in the wilderness, them Joshua circumcised, their circumcision he ordered; for they were uncircumcised, because they, the several fathers of the families, had not circumcised them by the way. It was necessary that the present race of young men should receive the sign of the Lord’s covenant before they dared undertake the conquest of Canaan.

v. 8. And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp till they were whole, had recovered from the. effects of the operation. During this time there were at least some three hundred thousand men to take care of the necessary preparations for the celebration of the Passover and to guard against an eventual attack on the part of the heathen armies.

v. 9. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you, namely, that resulting from the report that God had led His people out of Egypt merely for the purpose of striking them down in the wilderness, Exo 32:12; Num 14:13-16; Deu 9:28. The act of circumcision at Gilgal was God’s proclamation of the full restoration of the covenant, as first made with Abraham and at Sinai. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal (rolling away) unto this day. The sacred covenant rite had now been resumed, and all reproach had been removed. Israel was consecrated for the possession of the Holy Land, for it is an obedient, consecrated people whom the Lord desires for His own.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

THE CIRCUMCISION.

Jos 5:1

Which were on the side of Jordan westward. A large portion of the territory of the Amorites had, as we have seen (Jos 3:10), been already conquered. The remaining tribes on the other side Jordan were apprehensive of the same fate. For “on the side,” the original has “across.” Having hitherto written of Israel as on the eastern side of Jordan, he continues the same expression after he has narrated the crossing. But writing as he did on the west side of Jordan, and for readers the vast majority of whom were on the west side of Jordan, he adds the expression “westward” (literally, seaward) to prevent any possibility of mistake. Until we were passed over. The Masorites, in the Keri, have corrected the text (Chethibh) into “until they were passed over.” Kennicott states that this reading is confirmed by twenty-seven Hebrew MSS; which have probably adopted the reading from the Masoretic correction. The LXX. accepts the Chethibh. The probability, however, is that this is one of the many instances of a conjectural emendation of a difficult passage, it not having been seen that the historian was either quoting a document contemporary with the events described, or more probably using the word to identify himself as an Israelite with the acts of his fathers in past times. This is the opinion of Rabbi David Kimchi. Knobel refers to Psa 66:6. See also Psa 66:6 of this chapter, and Jos 24:5, Jos 24:6, Jos 24:7; Jdg 11:17; cf. 19. We must not, then, assume from this passage that the Book of Joshua was written by one who himself had a share in the events recorded, in the face of many indications we have of a later origin (see Jos 4:9, etc). A fuller discussion of this subject will be found in the introduction. Their heart melted. Confirming what Rahab had said (Jos 2:11). Similar terror has often been struck into the hearts of peoples, especially of peoples enervated by habits of licentious indulgence, by the approach of enemies who have successfully and rapidly overcome obstacles deemed insurmountable. Such an effect was produced in Persia by Alexander’s victories at the Granicus and Issus. Such an effect, again, was produced in Italy by the tidings of the approach of Alaric and Attila. If we may trust the monk of St. Gall, a similar terror fell on the degenerate Lombards at the approach of Charles the Great, after his daring passage of the Alps. In this case the miraculous element was added, and the inhabitants of Canaan, and of Jericho especially, remained for the time panic stricken, not daring to combine to strike a blow against these daring invaders, who in addition to their bravery seemed under the special protection of Heaven. When they had recovered from the consternation into which the passage of the Jordan had thrown them, the sense of an imminent danger forced them at last to make an effort at resistance (see Jos 10:1-43).

Jos 5:2

At that time. Ver. I is introduced in order to explain why Joshua ventured upon the circumcision of the children of Israel at so critical a period. Nothing could more clearly evince the spirit of confidence in Jehovah which animated not only Joshua, but all the children of Israel. We read of no murmurings, although it was well known that the performance of the rite of circumcision would unfit the Israelites for active service for some days. We may imagine, and even the silence of the sacred historian may be deemed eloquent on the point, that the marvellous passage of the Jordan had inspired the Israelites with an eager desire to renew their covenant with the God who “had done so great things for them already.” And although, for religious reasons, they remained inactive for four or five days, a course of action from a military point of view highly injudicious, yet such was the terror the passage of the Jordan had struck into the hearts of the Phoenicians that no attack on them was attempted, and the inhabitants of Jericho (Jos 6:1) remained under the protection of their strong walls. Sharp knives, or knives of stone (; cf. Exo 4:25). The LXX; Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic versions, as well as the margins of our Bibles, render thus. On the other hand, several of the Rabbis give the same translation as the text of our version. The LXX. translator, following no doubt an ancient tradition, adds after Jos 24:30, that these knives were buried with Joshua (see note there). The idea which has found great favour lately of a “stone age,” as anterior to an “iron age,” of the world, will hardly derive support from this passage. That the use of stone preceded the use of iron scarcely admits of a doubt. But from Gen 4:22 we learn that the use of iron had been known hundreds of years before Joshua, and yet we find him using stone knives. And we may go further. In spite of the advance of civilisation in our own day, there are still millions of human beings who have not advanced beyond the “stone age.” The idea, then, of an age in which the universal use of iron has supplanted the universal use of stone is an idea which facts compel us to reject, while admitting that the use of stone must have preceded the use of iron in the infancy of the human race. In these “knives of flint,” Origen, Theodoret, and others see an allusion to Christ, the rock. The second time. For “circumcise again the children of Israel the second time,” the literal translation is, “return () to circumcise,” or, “return, circumcise” them the second time. This has perplexed the commentators and translators. It has been assumed that the text involves the idea of a former general circumcision of the people, and various are the expedients which have been resorted to in order to avoid the difficulty. Some copies of the LXX. would read for (or for Rosenmuller), and translate “sit down” i.e; halt), “and circumcise” The Vulgate leaves out the word altogether. The Syriac translates literally. The Arabic reads “tomorrow” for “again.” The Rabbi Solomon Jarchi falls back on the expedient of a general circumcision ordered by Moses on the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, on account of their neglect of that rite while they sojourned there, “Nam jam antea magna multitudo simul erat circumcisa illa nocte qua egrediebantur ex AEgypto.” But this is rendered highly improbable by the fact that circumcision was an Egyptian as well as a Hebrew custom, and still more so by the improbability that such an important circumstance should have been passed over in silence. Knobel regards Abraham’s circumcision with that of his household as the first time (Gen 17:23). Perhaps the best explanation is that the word , though it is rightly translated “again” here, and in several other places in Scripture, carries with it the idea of a return into a former condition (kehre zuruck, Knobel). So Gen 26:18, Gen 30:31, Hos 2:11 (9, in our version). In 2Ki 1:11, 2Ki 1:13 we have the king’s return to his former purpose in the second and third mission to Elijah. Thus here the word is used of the bringing back the children of Israel to their former state, that of a people who were in the enjoyment of a visible sign and seal (Rom 4:11) of their being God’s covenant people. The meaning therefore would seem to be, “Restore the children of Israel a second time to the position they formerly held, as visibly bound to me, and placed under my protection, by the rite of circumcision.” “The person must be in favour ere the work can hope to prosper; his predecessor Moses had like to have been slain for neglect of this sacrament, when he went to call the people out of Egypt; he justly fears his own safety, if now he omit it, when they are brought into Canaan” (Bp. Hall).

Jos 5:3

The hill of the foreskins. The name given to the hill where the circumcision took place.

Jos 5:4

After they came out from Egypt. Rather “on their journey from Egypt.” See next verse, where the same words are translated “as they came out.”

Jos 5:5

Now all the people that came out were circumcised. The Hebrew of this passage (which runs literally thus”Now circumcised had they been, all the people who were going forth”) is sufficient to refute the idea that there was a great circumcision of the people under Moses, on account of the neglect of the rile in Egypt. For, before the exodus, Moses was not in a position to perform any general act of this kind, as the history plainly shows, while after it such a rite could not have taken place, since the Hebrew denotes a state of things which was completed at the time spoken of, and therefore must here be rendered (as above) by the pluperfect. Them they had not circumcised. Here again the Hebrew is used of the perfected action, and is therefore rightly rendered by our version, giving the idea that the Israelites who were born in the wilderness had not been circumcised up to the point which our history has now reached. See also Jos 5:7, where the same construction is found.

Jos 5:6

Till all the people. The Hebrew here is , not the usual word for people, but that usually applied to the Gentiles (equivalent to , by which word it is usually rendered in the LXX). It is applied to the Israelites in Jos 3:17; Jos 4:1; Isa 1:4; Isa 9:2; Isa 26:2. See also Exo 33:13. In the singular it means a people in the more general sense, a nation, as distinguished from a people in whom one has an interest. In the plural it always means the Gentiles. . (LXX; ), the word usually applied to the people of God, is not used here, because the people who “provoked God in the wilderness” had made themselves in a sense a rejected people. Delitzsch regards this (after Calvin) as a sign that, for the time at least, the covenant between God and Israel was annulled, permanently in the ease of those who were condemned to die in the wilderness, temporarily only in their descendants, who were formally reconciled to God, and restored to their former covenant position by this solemn performance of the covenant rite of circumcision (see note on Exo 33:2). So also Hengstenberg, ‘Geschichte des Reiches Gottes,’ p. 205. The difficulty about the passover may be met by supposing that those only who were circumciseda constantly decreasing number, of coursewere allowed to celebrate that feast. Knobel would understand that in consequence of the “unquiet, unsettled, uncomfortable life” the Israelites led in the wilderness, they could keep very few of the ordained feasts. He continues: “the Elohist knows nothing of any cessation.” Nevertheless we read of no passover being kept after the one recorded in Num 9:5, so that if “the Elohist knows of no cessation,” he knows as little of any continued observance of the feast. But there is no certainty on the point. Considering the loose way in which the word is used in Scripture (see, for instance, Gen 4:14), we need not press the word to include all who were born after the departure from Egypt, but only those who were born after the rejection of the people recorded in Num 14:26, sqq. This rejection, be it remembered, did not include all the Israelites who were born in Egypt, but only those who were over twenty years of age (Num 14:29). The view of Kurz (3:323, Clark’s translation), that circumcision was suspended on account of the continual movements of the Israelites, is refuted by Delitzsch’s remark that the Israelites were not continually on the march, but that they often encamped in one place for a long period, a period far longer, in fact, than the time in which they abode in Gilgal. Delitzsch asks why this circumcision did not take place before, why it was not performed as soon as they crossed the brook Zered. The answer is that, until the Jordan was crossed, they had not taken formal possession of their own land. As soon as, under the Divine protection, they had crossed the Jordan, the long-delayed promise was fulfilled. God’s covenant with Abraham was accomplished, and now they, in their turn, had to place themselves once more in the position of God’s covenant people, bound to serve Him with their whole heart. For a fuller discussion of this question see Keil’s Commentary, and Hengstenberg in the passage cited above. We may observe that God fulfils His part of the covenant first, and then it is man’s duty to fulfil his. God, under the Christian dispensation, first places us in the state of salvation. Then it becomes our duty to make that salvation sure by overcoming God’s enemies, by the help which He never fails to afford. Give us. This introduction of the first person into the middle of the sentence is unexpected. Some MSS. and editors read “to them” (see note on Num 14:1, and Psa 66:6, where there is a similar change of person). A land that floweth with milk and honey. This, says Keil, “is a standing expression in the Pentateuch to express the great fertility of the land of Canaan. Milk and honey are produced by a land rich in grass and flowers, which were both of them plentiful in Canaan (see Isa 7:15, Isa 7:22). Milk, not only of cows, but of sheep and goats also (Deu 32:14), and eaten sometimes sweet, at other times thick or curdled (), was a leading article of food amongst the ancient Hebrews, as it is in the present day in most Eastern countries, and Palestine was peculiarly fitted for the rearing of cattle. Honey also, especially that of wild bees, was found in large quantities (Jdg 14:8, sqq.; 1Sa 14:26; Mat 3:4), and is still found, notwithstanding its present desolate condition.” Some have thought to mean the newly expressed juice of grapes, which, under the Arabic name of dibs, is largely used at present in Palestine, and is even exported to other countries. But in Deu 32:13, Psa 81:16, wild honey is clearly meant, which is to this day deposited by bees, in the clefts of the rock, whence it often overflows and is received into vessels placed beneath (see Pro 5:3; So Pro 4:11; Jahn, ‘Biblical Archaeology;’ and Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible)

Jos 5:8

Till they were whole. Literally, till they revived, as in Gen 20:7; 2Ki 1:2; 2Ki 8:8. Objections have been raised (see Keil and Delitzsch in loc) to the possibility of this circumcision taking place in one day. But it has been shown by calculation that between one-third and one-fourth of the people who remained had been circumcised already, and that therefore such an operation as this could be performed with the utmost ease in a very short time. The word is used here again, since the people were still Gentiles until the rite of circumcision was performed.

Jos 5:9

The reproach of Egypt. Either

(1) the reproach which comes from the Egyptians, or

(2) the reproach of having sojourned in Egypt.

Keil incorrectly states that” the genitive always denotes the person from whom the reproach comes” (see Isa 54:4, “the reproach of thy widowhood,” i.e; the reproach which is cast upon thee for being a widow; Eze 36:30, “reproach of famine,” i.e; the reproach which comes from being doomed to suffer famine). If we accept

(1) we must refer the phrase to the reproach cast upon the Israelites by the Egyptians, that all their vain glorious boasts were worthless, and that they were never destined to occupy the land which they declared God had given to them. Hengstenberg regards it strangely as the reproach the Egyptians cast upon them that they were rejected of God. If

(2) it must be regarded as equivalent to the reproach that they were a nation of slaves, a reproach that was rolled away by the fact of their standing as freemen on the soil which had been promised to their fathers. But Knobel supposes

(3) that it was their down-trodden miserable condition in Egypt, a condition which was only partially ameliorated during their wanderings in the wilderness, in the course of which, accustomed to a settled existence, they must have had much to endure. “With the arrival in Canaan,” he adds, “all this came to an end. All those who had deserved punishment were dead, all the uncircumcised were circumcised, reproach and misery were put aside, and Israel, as the worthy community of God, entered on a new life.” This interpretation, more precise and clear than (2), best satisfies all the requirements of the passage. Some have regarded their uncircumcised state as the “reproach of Egypt.” But this, as Hengstenberg remarks, could hardly be, for none but the Egyptian priests were circumcised. Origen (Horn. 4, ‘Lib. Jesu Nave’) teaches the following lesson from this passage: “Fuimus enim nos aliquando insipientes, increduli, errantes, servientes desideriis et voluptatibus varlis, in malitiam, et invidia, odibiles, odientes invicem. Non tibi videntur haec opprobia esse, et opprobia AEgypti? Sed ex quo venit Christus, et dedit nobis secundam circumcisionem per baptismum regenerationis, et purgavit animas nostras, abjecimus haec omnia.” And again, speaking of the spiritual circumcision Christians have received, and the obligation to purity thus imposed, he adds, “Jam tibi enim non licet templo Dei uti, nisi in sanctitate, nec membra Christi ad iudignum dare negotium … Si quando te malae concupiscentiae pulsat illecebra dic non sum meus, enitus enim sum pretio sanguinis Christi, et membrum ipsius effectus sum.” Theodoret remarks how the Israelites who lind been circumcised perished in the wilderness, while their uncircumcised children were miraculously preserved and brought over Jordan. A remarkable commentary this on the words, “Now circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of the law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision” (Rom 2:25. Cf. 1Co 7:19). He also remarks that “we may here learn how we, who have received spiritual circumcision, thereby laid aside the reproach of sin.” Trusting by nature in the spiritual Egypt, the house of bondage, we are slaves to sin and corruption. When we enter into fellowship with Christ, the reproach of Egypt is rolled away, and we enjoy “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (see Rom 6:18-22; Gal 5:1; also Joh 8:32-36). Gilgal. It is quite possible, since the word to roll is in Hebrew, as indeed in English, spoken of a circular motion and since is a wheel in Hebrew, that the place, like Geliloth, i.e; circles (Jos 18:17), originally meant a circle, and that the new signification was attached to the name from this moment. If Deu 11:30 be not a later insertion, the place was known by the name before this time. The root is found in the Aryan as well as in the Semitic languages (as in the Greek , and the Latin volvo, globus).

HOMILETICS

Jos 5:1-9

The great renewal of the covenant.

Matthew Henry very felicitously quotes here and combines the two passages (So Mat 8:5 and Mat 6:10), “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved, who looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” Terrible as an army in the eyes of her enemies (verse 1); fair as the moon, clear as the sun, when the reproach of Egypt is rolled away (verse 9).

I. ISRAEL IS A TYPE OF THE CHURCH OF GOD IN HER WARFARE AGAINST SIN. When God’s Church resolutely binds herself to the conflict with the powers of evil, their heart must needs melt, neither is there spirit in them any more. “Then Satan doth fear, his citadels fall,” says the hymn. For the Church comes in the strength of her Lord. The “strong man armed” must have his “armour, wherein he trusted,” taken from him, and the spoils of human souls which he has so industriously acquired must be divided, because “the stronger than he” has come upon him and bound him. Satan has no weapons for a hand-to-hand conflict with the Body of Christ. His weapons are to corrupt, to deceive, to persuade to a spirit of compromise with the world. So it has ever been that he has triumphed by corrupting the Church of God. Whenever God’s disciples have gone forth to battle boldly and unflinchingly against evil, they have been victorious. They first humbled impurity and licentiousness, as well as unbelief. If they did not destroy these enemies of the soul, they at least compelled them to hide their heads, to shrink into corners, to admit unwillingly the superiority of purity and faith by ceasing to parade sins of this kind openly before the world. Next came the conflict with brute violence, which was kept in awe by the sacred character of the ministers of religion. Shameless and cynical effrontery in vice among those very ministers of religion, when the Church became corrupt, was next put down, even in spite of the weapons of force and temporal authority. So in later days a good cause has ever been victorious against the most overwhelming odds, when it has been prosecuted with perseverance and faith. Witness the abolition of slavery, first here, and next in America, so that even the Portuguese themselves, once the most hardened offenders in this respect, are now offering their cooperation with the English to put it down. So, again, the voice of God’s faithful ones has spoken, and men dare not now stand up to take away one another’s lives in this Christian land for a few hasty words, spoken without reflection. This may embolden us when we take up our weapons of prayer and holy exhortation to denounce the sins that yet remain among usthe reproach of intemperance, the scandalous opium traffic by which the revenue of India is largely supported, our commercial dishonesty, and all the other reproaches of our age. Against these must the Church of Christ gird on her armour, and never cease to wage a conflict, until the promised day shall come, when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” But one caution must be borne in mind. When we buckle on our armour afresh to contend against our enemies, we must first cross our Jordan. We must solemnly, that is, sever ourselves from the wayward and wandering past. Like Daniel (Dan 9:1-27), we must “speak, and pray, and confess our sin, and the sin of our people.” And then we must solemnly renew our covenant, our broken covenant, with God. Then may we advance without fear to the attack, and if Jesus be our leader, the battle may be long, but we cannot fail to have victory in the end.

II. ISRAEL IS A TYPE OF THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL IN THE SAME WARFARE. Just as in the case of the Church, so in the case of the individual, must there be the moment of conversion, the settled and deliberate resolve to break with the past, and the passage, under the guidance of the ark of the covenant, the law of God, and the conscience, the sign of His presence in the heart into the condition of fellowship with God. Then must come the solemn renewal of the covenant, the circumcision of the heart, the mortifying of the flesh, the cutting off even those innocent enjoyments which have been found dangerous in times past, through the weakness of the flesh. Then the feast by faith upon the flesh and blood of the true Paschal Lamb, the making memorial of our deliverance through Him from a cruel bondage, and then we must prepare for the assault. Nor need we fear defeat. Satan trembles when he sees us determined. His heart melts within him as he sees us advancing under the leadership of Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, and as long as we are resolute in the strife, the victory is secure. Yet it is not always won in the same manner. Some sins fall like Jericho, by the might of prayer. Some, like Ai, when evil has obtained a lodgment within, are only overcome after a shameful humiliation, repaired by a firm determination to put away the secret defilement. Others, like the rest of the cities which Joshua destroyed, will only succumb after a determined and persevering resistance. But the result is the same in the end. “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper,” if thou art only steadfast in following wherever Jesus leads. “Terrible as an army is she who cometh up out of the wilderness, leaning on the arm of her beloved.”

III. WORLDLY WISDOM MUST BE LAID ASIDE WHEN WE HAVE TO BATTLE WITH SIN. Nothing could be more foolish, humanly speaking, than for Joshua to have ordered a general circumcision of the children of Israel at this time. Simeon and Levi (Gen 34:25) had taken advantage of this moment to overcome the Shechemites. And, leaving God out of the question, if the inhabitants of the land had descended upon the Israelites at the moment of their helplessness, they would have been sure of an easy victory. But these Israelites were under the protection of God. He could have worked another miracle to protect them from their enemies, as easily as He had brought them over Jordan. But He worked no miracle this time. He inspired terror into the minds of the inhabitants of Canaan, so that they dare not attack them. They were quite safe under His protection, as long as they obeyed His voice. This should teach us

1. Not to slight the means of grace. “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” And yet it is equally true that he who refused to be circumcised as God had commanded him, “that soul” was to be “cut off from his people.” So in these days, those who “forsake the assembling of themselves together,” who make light of Christian baptism, who neglect the Lord’s Supper, who treat with disdain the ordinances set up by lawful authority in the Church, who kick at authority and despise reproof, shall not be unpunished.

2. Not to combat sin with worldly weapons. Such maxims as “honesty is the best policy,” and other similar ones which put the practice of virtue upon grounds of success in this life and worldly convenience, will always fail us at the critical moment. Let the temptation be only strong enough; let it only be clearly more to our advantage at the moment when we are assailed to yield than to resist, and the “cunning bosom sin” (George Herbert) will “blow away” all that” array” of “fences” which worldly wisdom has set around our actions. Nothing but the rooted conviction, “Thou God seest me;” nothing but the question, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” will be powerful enough to defeat the assaults of sin in cases of secret overwhelming temptation. If that is not motive strong enough, nothing will be. Had the Israelites omitted to fence themselves with the protection of God’s covenant, their prudence would not have availed them against the overwhelming numbers of their adversaries. But confidence that they were in the keeping of a higher power led them to consecrate themselves first to God, and then to go out to battle against His enemies and theirs.

3. Not to neglect our duty for fear of consequences. No one could have been under a greater temptation to do this than Joshua. By his obedience he was placing himself and his people in a position of the most imminent peril. Yet we hear of no hesitation. He does what he ought to do as a matter of course. Faith is weaker with the great mass of professing Christians than it was with Joshua. Both in public and private affairs men continually plead the urgency of the case as an excuse for a slight dereliction of duty. This is the case

(a) in affairs of State. And this is especially the case when the duty is what is (though erroneously) called a religious duty. Thus in India, some years ago, our missionaries were discouraged in their efforts, because it was supposed that British authority would be endangered by their successes. The opium traffic, above referred to, is defended on the ground of the evils to India which would result from a financial deficit. We sometimes hear “British interests” put above duty. Yet without attempting to decide whether this has been so in any given case, the broad general principle must be laid down that no fear of consequences to our vast and most valuable power ought to induce us, as a nation, to take one single step that cannot be defended on the grounds of abstract justice. We may be certain that in the long run the most conscientious policy will be the most advantageous. Yet even if not, “let justice be done, though the heavens should fall.” We find the same tendency at work

(b) in the affairs of the Church. Those who are in high office in the Church often display over timidity from the sense of the grave responsibility that action throws upon them. Nor should such a sense of responsibility be absent. Yet where duty is clear there is no responsibility at all. Consequences in such a case should not be weighed. They may sometimesthough not so often as is supposedserve to help in the decision where duty lies. But they cannot be pleaded as an excuse for neglecting duty. Lastly

(c), we come to the case of private persons, and we find the same tendency at work. The tradesman or professional man adopts the commercial morality of his fellows, whether it be right or wrong, and says that he shall be ruined if he does not. Let him take example by Joshua.

IV. THE SOLEMN RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT WAS A RENEWAL OF ITS RESPONSIBILITIES AND BLESSINGS. The covenant of circumcision had its spiritual meaning, which Moses as well as St. Paul pointed. “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your head.”

1. It was a covenant of mortification. It implied the restraint of the lusts of the flesh by a painful process. This is to be the Christian’s daily work. In the place of comfort, luxury, and ease, we are to be the disciples of Him who “had not where to lay his head.” The promptings of our lower nature are constantly to be kept in check. Strict and severe moderation in all allowed comforts is our duty. Even our leisure and our recreations must often be broken in upon by the thought of the needs of those for whom Christ died, and for whom He would have us live. “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps.” The Christian life, therefore, is incompatible with self indulgence.

2. It was a covenant of warfare. The covenant was solemnly renewed on the entrance into the promised land. But it was understood that, before the blessings of that land could be enjoyed, every nation that inhabited it must be extirpated. In like manner the Christian is pledged to an unceasing warfare with sin.

3. The covenant, once broken, could be renewed when the Israelites were willing to renew it. And so it is with the Christian. He may cast himself out of the favour of God by his disobedience. But God yearns after him, and, as in the parable of the prodigal son, sees him when “yet a great way off,” and runs to meet him. Only there must be the willingness to endure the restraints of the covenant. The step to reconciliation is circumcision. That is, we cannot be reconciled to God until we have sincerely resolved to “mortify and kill all vices;” to live a hard and self denying life; to be watchful against the flesh and its tyranny, and to devote ourselves heart and soul to the service of our Master, with all its grievous restraints upon self pleasing and self interest.

4. The renewal of the covenant removed the reproach of Egypt. The Scriptures of both the Old and New Testament are full of God’s mercy to penitent sinners. “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still” (Jer 31:20). “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luk 15:22-24). The past is forgotten when the sinner turns to God. “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” “Ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls (1Pe 2:25. See also 2Co 5:17-21; Eph 2:1-6, etc). We may approach God in all confidence as our loving Father (Eph 2:18; Eph 3:12); not from any trust in our own merits, but because we are “accepted in the beloved” (Eph 1:6).

HOMILIES BY E. DE PRESSENSE

Jos 5:6-11

The Two Sacraments of the Old Covenant

Circumcision and the passover were the two sacraments of the old covenant. The first set forth the truth that enrolment among the people of God must be accompanied with the putting away of evil. The second represented the past deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, and the future deliverance from all the perils of the wilderness by entrance into Canaan, and the final possession of the land of promise. On the eve of the decisive conflict, God commands His people to make a solemn renewal of these two covenants. Israel must be afresh consecrated to Him by that covenant of circumcision which symbolises holiness by the crucifixion of the flesh, and by that passover feast, which is at once the symbol of past and future deliverances. Thus also should the Christian gird himself for the conflict of the spiritual life. When he enlists under the banner of his God, he ought, as it were, to renew his baptismal vows, by what St. Peter calls “the answer of a good conscience,” thus dedicating himself to God in the renunciation of all the defilements of sin, by that circumcision of the heart which was the deep truth signified by the old fleshly rite. And further, by partaking of the Christian passover feast, he should testify his entire trust in redeeming love by receiving this most sacred pledge of love, and deriving from it the needed renewal of spiritual strength. That which is true of the individual Christian is true also of the Church. It requires to be constantly baptized a fresh with the Spirit of God, and to receive the pledges and seals of the grace of redemption, as a preparation for its spiritual conflicts. There is one remarkable feature in the sacred narrative. It is said that on the occasion of this first passover celebrated beyond the Jordan, the Israelites “did eat of the old corn of the land” (Jos 5:10, Jos 5:11). Thus they not only had in this feast a pledge of the promised deliverance, BUT AN EARNEST OF THE GOOD THINGS TO COME. They not only had a fresh guarantee of the promise, but a beginning of its fulfilment. The same thing is true of the Christian sacrament. While it is an essentially spiritual feast, it still gives in part that which it sets forth and symbolises. Faith receives the Holy Spirit in baptism, and feeds upon the invisible Christ in the Lord’s Supper. Christ is to the soul “the living bread which came down from heaven” (Joh 6:31). Thus even before the Jordan is crossed, the Christian soul eats of the corn of the land of promise.E. DE P.

HOMILIES BY R. GLOVER

Jos 5:9, Jos 5:10

Sacramental consecration of life.

We may with advantage linger over the story of this chapter. It has lessons which will never die, and appeals which will never grow old. It is a testimony against a form of evil so common and so dangerous that all branches of the Church of Christ suffer from it. It brings before us the question of the neglect of sacraments, and the wisdom of repairing that neglect. To bring the chief points before us, observe first

I. WE ARE PRONE TO NEGLECT THE SACRAMENTS OF GOD. The neglect reported here strikes us as very strange. With the great miracles in recollection which had accompanied their leaving Egypt, it should, we feel, have been impossible for them to have forgotten or disobeyed their God. But here we have the statement that the entire nation had neglected the sacramental circumcision; and the narrative leaves some uncertainty as to whether there had not been some irregularity in the observance of the passover as well. It is not easy to explain such neglect. Perhaps the first sacrament was overshadowed by the law given at Sinai, the preoccupation with the new rites leading to the neglect of the old. The more so as, excepting the precept implied in the word, “No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof,” there was no precept given at Sinai concerning this rite. Probably the neglect of the one carried with it the neglect of the other. Possibly some sullenness and dissatisfaction with the length of their desert wanderings intensified this feeling. However that may be, here we have the fact that beneath the eyes of the law giver the people neglect the observance of one or both of these rites. It is not, I think, that they are under any interdict, as some have imagined. There is no trace of a prohibition to observe them. It seems to have been simple, sheer neglect. If we feel it strange they should neglect these rites, we ought to feel it stranger still that they find so many today who resemble them in doing so. Like Israel, we have sacraments. As they had one for the individual confession of belonging to God, we have the rite of Baptism; as they had the social sacrament of the Passover, we have that of the Lord’s Supper. But everywhere, from some reason or other, we see both neglected. Both meant to be observed by those who can make intelligently the avowals which they express, both are neglected. Sometimes, through carelessness and misconception, baptism will be neglected; but sometimes, merely because it is irksome, or because it seems not essential to salvation, or because it carries with it reproach for Christ, or involves responsibility, persons are found neglecting the rite of baptism, which the Saviour meant them to observe. And for much the same reasons the other, the social sacrament, is neglected. Around every Christian Church there is a fringe composed of persons alive to the glory of the gospel who yet shrink from the formal rites of covenant with God. How much they lose by it, none can tell. The mental clearness; the safety that lies in a well-defined position; the higher purpose; the greater ease with which the confession of Christ is made anti the denial of Christ avoided; the closer and firmer fellowship with God’s saints, with all its quickening influencesthese are all forfeited by the dull neglect of a blessed rite. And how much the Church and the world lose by their lukewarmness, by their refusal of service, by their unintentional but serious influence in abating the spirit of religious earnestness! Of these they never think. It is more agreeable to the indolence of their natures, or the timidity of their hearts, to abstain from all avowals; and so, like Israel, they neglect the sacraments of God. Let those guilty of such action remember that the sacraments are commandments which cannot be neglected without sin on the one hand and danger on the other. Secondly observe

II. GOD PERMITS US TO REPAIR OUR NEGLECT AND ENTER INTO COVENANT WITH HIM. It is a marvellous thing that we should be permitted to enter into covenant with God; that in rites in which all the promises made are made by Him, not by us, He should bind Himself to be our redeeming God; that in the one sacrament He should make offer of cleansing from all guilt, and in the other of the bread of immortal life. It is a matter more marvellous still that to those who have neglected those rites for stretches of years He yet extends the permission to approach them. But so it is. Here is an illustration of this willingness. He had little hope of much honour or satisfaction from Israel. They would be a rebellious and gainsaying people through all their future. Yet here He allows them again to resume their relation to Him, to “lay hold on his covenant.” It is no slight mercy to us that God is willing still to enter into an “everlasting covenant with us, ordered in all things and sure.” If now our neglect is regretted, let not despair prolong it. Whatever falseness to conscience we have been guilty of, He keeps the door open, and gives us what we have no title to expectthe opportunity to repair neglect. He lays it as a charge on all to observe these covenant rites, so that we cannot without being disobedient keep outside of a covenant relation to Him. Belong to the Church of the redeemed. Let the name of God and of the city of God be upon you. When God permits us to repair our neglect, let us do so. Thirdly observe

III. ALL BEGINNING ANY NEW ENTERPRISE SHOULD BEGIN IT WITH GOD. Israel has a great task before it. He will do well to lay hold on God’s strength to help him. The messenger of God’s justice, he must himself be just. “They must be holy who bear the vessels of the Lord.” Exposed to great strain and great difficulty, they act wisely to close with God, and gain Him on their side. In this we have lessons for several classes. First, for the young, and those beginning life. When life is yet all before you, and the struggle with your foes yet to come, join your redeeming God in solemn saved from wreck had this been done. covenant. Many a life would have been Save yours. You will be saved many a grief, and come safe out of every danger, if in the beginning of your career before leaving Gilgal you enter into sacramental covenant with your Saviour. Well begun is half done. And a good beginning of the better life secures its perfectest and easiest development. The earliest is always the most convenient season for the great religious decisions of life.

(2) Those not young, but yet entering on some new career, some new set of experiences or duties or dangers, will always act wisely by consecrating the opening of a new career. Begin all things with God. His wisdom will preserve from error, and His power from all danger. Hallow the new undertaking, the enjoyment of the new mercy, the experience of the new trial, by getting closer to God. Commence business life, commence married life, commence your life in a strange land, by special consecration. Let all ponder these matters. Let those who have made, keep their sacramental vows, and those who have neglected make them; for while the Saviour is honoured by them and rejoices in them, their blessings on ourselves surpass all our conceptions.G.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Ver. 1. And it came to pass when all the kings of the Amorites We have before remarked, that these were the most valiant of all the Canaanites. The next clause seems added to shew, that besides the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, whom the Israelites had already subdued, on the east of Jordan, there were other kings of the same nation on the west side of the river, where the Israelites now were. And it is not improbable, that these kings commanded the Hittites, Hivites, and Jebusites, as well as the Amorites.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

4. The Dedication to the Holy War

Joshua 5

a. The Effect of the Invasion on the Inhabitants of the Land

Jos 5:1

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

b. The Circumcision of the People

Jos 5:2-9

2At that time the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Joshua: Make thee sharp knives [knives of stone], and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. 3And Joshua made him sharp knives [knives of stone], and circumcised the children of Israel at 4the hill of the foreskins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: all the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even [omit: even] all the men of war 5[had] died in the wilderness by the way, after [as] they came out of Egypt. Now [For] all the people that came out were circumcised; but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. 6For the children [sons] of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people [nation] that were [omit: that were] men [the men] of war, which came out of Egypt were consumed, because they obeyed not [hearkened not to] the voice of the Lord [Jehovah]: unto whom the Lord [Jehovah] sware that he would not show them the land which the Lord [Jehovah] sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. 7And their children [sons], whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised: because they had not circumcised them by the way.1 8And it came to pass when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole [healed]. 9And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore [And] the name of the [that] place is called Gilgal unto this day.

c. The Passover. The Corn of the Land

Jos 5:10-12

10And the children [sons] of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even, in the plains of Jericho. 11And they did eat of the old corn [the produce] of the land in the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes and parched corn [roasted ears] in the self-same day. 12And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn [produce] 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.

d. The Captain of the Lords Host

Jos 5:13-15

13And 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 Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? 14And he said, Nay; but as captain2 of the host of the Lord [Jehovah] am I now come.3 And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? 15And the captain of the Lords [Jehovahs] host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy: and Joshua did so.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Starke has given to this chapter the somewhat clumsy yet substantially correct superscription: The things which followed immediately upon the passage through the Jordan. Thus we have here brought before us in succession, related and displayed, (a.) the effect of the invasion of Canaan upon the heathen, Jos 5:1; (b.) the circumcision of the people, Jos 5:2-9; (c.) the enjoyment of the bread of the land and the Passover in connection with the cessation of the manna, Jos 5:10-15; and finally, (d.) the appearance of the war-prince of God (Jos 5:13-15). In a critical point of view, this chapter offers, when compared with chapters 3 and 4, no difficulties, so to speak; since the continuity of the narration is interrupted by nothing and no repetitions occur. Even Knobel has received the same impression of the present chapter, except Jos 5:10-12. He ascribes all the rest to one and the same author, namely, that of the Law Book. Since for us this Law Book in Knobels sense has no existence, we can agree with him only in so far as we believe that in Jos 5:1-9; Jos 5:13-15 we meet with the same hand.

As to Jos 5:10-12, they stand nearly related to Jos 4:17; Jos 4:19, through the exact designation of time which characterizes them. In Jos 5:10 also, as there in Jos 5:12, Gilgal is mentioned, so that all which is reported between may be omitted, and in Jos 5:10 the author takes up the thread which he had dropped in Jos 5:4-15. On the other hand Jos 5:10 connects itself easily and naturally with Jos 5:9, so that there appears to be no absolute necessity to go back to Jos 4:19. When, however, we examine Jos 5:9 b more sharply, the whole turn of the sentence, and also the expression, here again repeated, until this day, presents itself as designed to introduce Jos 5:10-12, which we must refer to the Elohistic document, on account of its character in other respects, and therefore regard as the proper continuation of Jos 4:19.

a. Jos 5:1. The Effect of the Invasion upon the Heathen. The verse stands in the most exact connection with Jos 4:24. All the peoples of the earth were to learn how mighty is the hand of the Lord and fear Him. A first example of this effect is given by the Canaanites, whose heart melts, and whose courage flees. The terror which, according to the words of Rahab, had before seized them (Jos 2:9-11), had been increased by the marvelous passage of the Jordan. A panic had fallen upon them. does not refer here, as in Jos 1:14-15, to the country east of the Jordan, but as is shown by the careful addition to the west side of the river.The more difficult Kethib , is to be retained like , Jos 5:6. In the author assumes the person of the people and speaks in their name, as in Jos 5:6, comp. Psa 66:6. (Knobel).4

b. Jos 5:2-9. The Circumcision of the People. This takes place upon an express command of Jehovah because, as Jos 5:4-6 state, it had been omitted in the wilderness. The covenant-people should, as such, bear the sign of the covenant which Abraham had formerly received as a seal () of the righteousness of faith (Rom 4:11), and with it, as a sanctified people, holy to the Lord, enter into the promised land.

Knives of stone. Thus and not sharp knives must we translate . Joshua follows the custom of antiquity which, as Exo 4:25 shows, performed circumcision with stone knives, because they had as yet no others. Afterwards this kind of knives, as being more venerable, were still employed in sacred transactions. [Among the additions of the LXX. at the end of this book, is the curious statement after Jos 24:30 : there they placed with him in the tomb where they buried him, the knives of stone ( ) with which he circumcised the sons of Israel in Gilgal.Tr.] The testa samia with which the priests of Cybele castrated themselves (Plin. 35, 46), and the stone knives of the Egyptian embalmers (Herod. 2, 86), may serve as parallels (Winer, Bibl. Realw., s. v. Messer.) The Vulgate has rightly fac tibi cultros lapideos; the LXX. mingle together a right translation and wrong interpretation: . Stone knives were found also at the discovery of the pile-dwellings, e.g. in the lake of Zurich near Meilen (1854), where I myself saw them. They are very finely ground, and cut, not indeed like a knife of steel, but better than one would believe. Always, however, the operation with these instruments was a very imperfect one, and in the case before us extremely painful.5

[Circumcise again. the second time.

does not indicate, of course, that the circumcision of the same people was to be repeated, but that, as the whole people which came out of Egypt had been circumcised, so now there should be a circumcision of the present people. Cf. Keil, Bib. Com. in loc. Masius understood to mark the reintroduction of the rite with reference to its first employment by Abraham. Com. in Josuam, p. 81. This is too far sought.Tr.]

Hill of foreskins. Perhaps so named from this transaction. Lev 19:23, where circumcision of the trees is spoken of, appears not to belong here [against an intimation of Knobels].

Jos 5:4-7. Statement of the reason why Joshua performed this rite. Knobel expresses doubt whether what is here reported is historical fact. In support of this he appeals to the Elohist, who says nothing of such omission, Jos 4:19 compared with Jos 5:10. But even assuming that these passages are, as we concede, Elohistic, they do not suffice to impeach the historical character of the reason assigned, since they furnish at the most a very weak argumentum e silentio, while on the other side it is highly probable that although circumcision had been sharply enjoined on the Israelites at Sinai (Lev 12:3), they had, in their unsettled wanderings, neglected to follow the command of God. The same thing took place later in the case of the Passover, through hundreds of years, as we learn from 2Ki 23:22.

Jos 5:6. All the nation, the men of war. According to Num 14:22-30 the adult generation, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, were doomed to die in the wilderness, and a new generation must enter into Canaan. That the men of war specially are mentioned, agrees with Num 14:29-32, according to which all who were mustered after their number (Comp. Num 1:45 ff.), from twenty years old and upward, should die in the wilderness. Since, then, the former circumcised men of war were no more, their bodies having fallen in the wilderness, on account of disobedience, the present race of young men must, before they dare undertake the conquest of Canaan, first receive the sign of the Lords covenant of which we just now spoke.

A land that floweth with milk and honey. Exo 3:8; Exo 3:17; Exo 13:5; Exo 16:14; Exo 33:3; Lev 20:24; Num 13:27; Num 14:8; Deu 1:3, and often. Milk and honey are productions of a land rich in grass and flowers which make residence therein pleasant and beautiful. Both articles were abundantly produced in Canaan, even in a state of devastation, Isa 7:15; Isa 7:22. Milk, eaten partly sweet and partly thick or curdled, that of cows as well as of goats and sheep (Deu 32:14), was prominent in the diet of the ancient Hebrews, as in that of the Orientals of the present day. This is because Palestine was and is so well suited to the care of cattle, comp. Winer. Realw. ii. 768 ff. The land yielded great quantities of honey also, especially that from wild bees (Jdg 14:8; 1Sa 14:26; Mat 3:4), and still yields it in its wasted condition (Keil). [See references Introd. 6, p. 27.] That we are to understand here real honey and not syrup, appears from its connection with milk. Keil quotes similar descriptions from Euripides and Theocritus. Thus it is said in Eurip. Bacch, Josh 142:

P

P ,

N

No mention is made here of wine, although the vine thrives extraordinarily well, especially in the region of Hebron. Compare also Num 13:21; Num 13:24, as well as the beautiful expression that each one dwelt, or should dwell, under his vine and figtree, 1Ki 4:25; Mic 4:4.

Jos 5:7. Them Joshua circumcised, that is, as in Jos 5:3, Joshua ordered their circumcision. The operation itself was performed by the several fathers of families, as it is related of Abraham, Gen 17:23 ff., for which Act 16:3 also may be compared. Thus we most easily escape the difficulty which otherwise arises, (a) in view of the great number to be circumcised, and (b) of the shortness of the time, since according to Jos 5:10 they celebrated the Passover on the fourteenth of the month Abib. We surely cannot think of help from the mothers and other women (Rosenmller). We refrain from an exact determination of the number of those circumcised, such as Keil has attempted (pp. 74, 75).6

Jos 5:8. Till they were healed. When the whole people were circumcised they remained in their place (Exo 10:23; Exo 16:29) in the camp, that is, did not leave the camp nor undertake anything until they were healed. This is , prop, to live, become lively (Gen 16:27), revive (Job 14:14; Eze 37:3), then also to be healed (2Ki 1:2; 2Ki 8:8). On the third day the pain was at its height (Gen 34:25). (Knobel.)

Jos 5:9. The reproach of Egypt. The reproach which has attached to the people all the way from Egypt, and which consists in the misery of the people who had there become a people of slaves. This reproach had not yet been removed while they were journeying through the wilderness, because God had been angry with his people for their disobedience, and they on their part had neglected circumcision.7 Now a new day has dawned. The reproach is rolled away through the resumption of the sacred covenant-rite. Hence Isaiah also, at a later period, warns them (Exo 30:1-5) against alliances with Egypt, lest the strength of Pharaoh should become a shame () to them, and prophesies expressly that Egypt will be no help nor any profit at all, but a shame and a reproach. One day, however, a time will come, according to the testimony of the same prophet (Exo 25:8), when the Lord will swallow up death forever, and wipe away the tears from every face, and take away the reproach of his people from off the earth. The reproach of former slavery is meant, the reproach of banishment, of widowhood, as it is called. Isa 54:1. is synonymous with or , (Isa 30:5; Psa 69:20; Psa 119:22; Pro 18:3; Eze 5:15).

And the name of this place is called Gilgal unto this day; according to the view of the author, because God had in this place rolled away the reproach from off his people. Knobel, Frst, and others, question this derivation because two cities besides of this name are mentioned, one between Dor and Thirza (Jos 12:23), and another, six Roman miles north of Antipatris (Deu 11:30), which Eusebius still knew by the name of Magdala, and accurately indicates. Accordingly other derivations have been sought. The name should signify, in reference to Jos 4:19-24, the place of the stone-heap, or stone-heap monument, or = , a wheel-shaped height, to which = Golgotha might be cited as analogous. Frst, and Knobel (on Jos 15:7) explain the word by circle, circuit, like the cognate (hence Galilee), as also we have , Jos 18:7, for , Jos 15:7, and according to LXX. Jos 12:23. Subsequently was pronounced (, Golgol), cf. Phn. (coast of the circle), pr. nom. of the city Igilgili (, Ptol. 4, 2, litus Igilgilitanum, in Amm. 29, 5, 5; now Gi-gelli, near the river Ampsaga in Algiers); (Gulgog), pr. nom. of a Phnician settlement in Cyprus. We adopt this last-named etymology, since manifestly these places previously bore the name Gilgal, and not, like Bethel or Bethlehem (Gen 28:19; Gen 35:15; Gen 35:19), a different one. But after a definite historical event had occurred here, which was recalled by the word, the name Gilgal was subsequently interpreted symbolically by the Israelites. Compare with this, out of the most recent history, the symbolical significance of the name Kniggrtz = (dem) Knig grths [the king succeeds.]8

c. Jos 5:10-12. The Passover, connected with the first Enjoyment of the Bread of the Land, and the Cessation of the Manna. On the special relation of this short passage, which in every view suits very well with the entire narrative, we have already commented, on Jos 4:15-17; Jos 4:19. The children of Israel encamped in Gilgal where they had already pitched, according to Jos 4:19, and observed the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening. The designation of time recalls Exo 12:6; Exo 12:18; Lev 23:5; Num 9:3; Num 28:16, and is not met with elsewhere in the Pentateuch (Knobel).

Jos 5:11. On the morrow after the passover; not as Keil strangely supposes, on the sixteenth, but on the fifteenth, precisely according to the precept of the law, Lev 23:5; Lev 6:9

In the self-same day, on which they observed the Passover. For the evening of the fourteenth belonged to the fifteenth day, see Exo 12:6; Gen 1:5 (Knobel). [Or, the self-same day on which they ate the unleavened bread from the new grain. Tr.] , of the produce of the land. According to Gesen. the etymology is uncertain. Frst derives from = to make fruitful. Both compare the Aram. , ftus, surculus. Targum and Peshito use for and . Instead of , which occurs nowhere else in the O. T., is used Lev 23:39, as well as here in the latter part of Jos 5:12. In the translation, the distinction between the words is attempted to be preserved by produce (not old corn) and fruit (yield). The word means precisely income (from ).

Roasted, ears. Roasted harvest ears are meant; an article of food still much esteemed by the Arabs. [See Smiths Dict. of the Bible, art. Ruth, Book of, p. 2756 b.]

Jos 5:12. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they ate, etc. On the sixteenth therefore, the manna ceased, because the people had now arrived in Canaan, and no longer needed this bread of the wilderness (Exo 16:15; Exo 16:31 ff.; Num 11:6 ff.; Deu 8:3; Neh 9:20; Psa 78:24; Joh 6:31; Joh 6:49; Joh 6:58; Rev 2:17). At this place also the ark was substituted for the pillar of cloud and of fire, as the guide in the way.10 They stand in the most intimate relation to each other, since in the plan of God, the historical development of the people was gradually to take the place of his immediate guidance and support.

In respect to the manna itself, it is well known that reference has often been made to the tamariskmanna of the Sinaitic peninsula, which results from the puncture of the leaves of the Tamarix mannifera, or orientalis, by an insect of the coccus family (Coccus manniparus), and in the form of a sweet, honey-like resin. So the whole body of rationalist interpreters, explain. On the other side, von Raumer (The March of the Israelites, p. 21 ff.) maintains that, that manna of the Israelites differed from the present tamarisk-manna toto clo; the honest student of Scripture cannot possibly regard that corn of heaven, that angels food, as it is called (Psa 78:25 ff.), with which God fed his people, as being the same as the louse-production (!) of the naturalist. Stiff supranaturalism! to which even Hengstenberg and Keil do not agree. These assume rather that in the feeding with manna, the supernatural rises on the ground of the natural, as in the case of the miracles in Egypt, and in that of the quail-food. See Keil on this passage (p. 83 ff.).

As analogous to this we might cite the miraculous feeding in John 6 where also the natural basis of bread and fish was present (Joh 6:9). The miracle consists in both cases in the increase, on the grandest scale, of the food which they already had. While now, even in the most rainy seasons, not more than fifty or sixty pounds is gathered, the Israelites gathered, according to von Raumers calculation, at least on certain occasions, near 600,000 pounds. It lay after the dew like frost around the camp (Exo 16:14). God rained it on the Israelites (Psa 78:25). This last expression, which however is employed also concerning flesh, Josephus follows when he says (Ant. iii. 1, 6), that it still rains manna in the wilderness of Sinai. Keil disputes this statement of Josephus, because (a) it is supported by no trustworthy authority; (b) it is made by him evidently on the ground of uncertain accounts which had come to him by hearsay. Recent travellers know nothing at all of any manna rain.11 The great abundance of the manna, therefore, remains a miracle. In respect to the substance also a difference between the manna of the Bible, and that of the present day seems to hold good, since the latter cannot be pounded, ground, baked in cakes, as is reported (Num 11:7-8) concerning the former. A further, essential difference we cannot assume, with Keil, at least not on the ground that the present manna is used only as an accompaniment to other food and as a dainty, or even as a purgative medicine, since Num 11:6 proves how greatly the Israelites loathed the manna as the solitary staple of their diet. Their soul was dried away () upon it. They longed therefore for flesh, which the Lord also gave them (Num 11:31; Psa 78:27; Psa 105:40), as conversely he had before (Exo 16:13) given them first quails and then manna. Keil concludes his explanation of our passage in these words: The feeding of the Israelites with manna remains, therefore, a miracle of God which has indeed, in nature, a faint analogue, but can never be explained on natural principles. In this he means right, as his preceding exposition shows, but ought rather to have said that this miracle rises indeed on a foundation given in nature, but can by no means be identified with the phenomenon of the manna still commonly exhibited at the present day, nor be fully explained by it.12

As to the etymology, the word according to Exo 16:15; Exo 16:31, has its name from , what?, but this is elsewhere only Chaldee. Gesenius derives it from the Arabic, and explains it as meaning part, present, gift, namely of heaven, as the Arabs actually call it. He thus follows Kimchi, and Ibn Esra, who also compare Heb. . Frst resorts to an extra-Semitic etymology, because the manna was strange to the Hebrews, and they (Exo 16:15; Exo 16:31) had no name for it. We think this unnecessary, and would rather refer the word to the unused root = , to divide, to part, to measure, precisely as , Psa 68:24. Compare also from , (in compounds like , sounded also ) from .

c. Jos 5:13-15. The War-Prince of God. As the people receive the consecration to the holy war through circumcision and the Passover, so Joshua, their leader, receives his through the appearance of the prince over Jehovahs army, who commands him, as was done to Moses (Exo 3:5), to take off his shoes because the place whereon he stands is holy.

Jos 5:13. By Jericho [lit.: in Jericho], (cf. Jos 10:16; Jos 24:26; Gen 13:18). The man bears a drawn (Luther: bare) sword in his hand. Such an one is borne also by the angel who meets Balaam in the way (Num 22:23), and not less by the Cherub at the gate of Paradise (Gen 3:24). Joshua, thus proving that God has not in vain admonished him (Jos 1:6-7; Jos 1:9) to be strong and firm, goes near the apparition and asks the man: Art thou for us or for our adversaries? The question was appropriate for the military leader of the Israelites (Knobel.)

Jos 5:14. The one addressed answers in the negative, and belongs, therefore, neither to one nor to the other, but is rather the captain of Jehovahs host, that is, prince of the angels. For these, called also the host of heaven (1Ki 22:19), are to be understood as the , as Psa 103:21; Psa 148:2 (Knobel). Compare further, 2Ch 18:18, and Luk 2:13. And Jehovah himself is Jehovah of hosts, or more fully, Jehovah God of hosts (Jer 5:14; Jer 15:16), as God is called by the prophets and frequently, in the Psalms, Isa 6:3; Isa 37:16; Isa 51:15; Jer 33:11; Amo 9:5; Psa 24:10; Psa 80:8; Psa 84:2; in the N. T. Jam 5:4. On the significance of this angel see below, Theological and Ethical.

Am I now come.13 For what, is not told, since Joshua interrupts the angel, and with the deepest reverence asks: What speaks my Lord ( as Gen 19:18, not , should be read [?] because Joshua recognizes the man as a higher being; Knobel) to his servant.

Jos 5:15. Loose thy shoes from off thy feet, prop, throw off thy shoes from thy feet. We point according to Exo 3:5, instead of and . [This change is of very doubtful warrant.] De Wette and Luther also adopt the plural in their translations. The shoes must be removed because to them cleaves defilement from the earth, which God has cursed (Gen 3:17.) Hence the priests also must wash their hands and feet, when they entered the sanctuary (Exo 30:19; Exo 40:32), and went in probably barefooted. But a direct precept to go barefoot is nowhere found.

For the place . is holy. It is holy from the appearance here of the angel. Probably the latter communicated still further to Joshua what he was to do. Knobel supposes directions for the approaching war, as well as promises and encouragements; rightly.

[There is much in favor of the view advocated by Keil, and many before him, that the communication of the angel to Joshua is contained in Jos 6:2-5. Chapter Jos 5:13 to Jos 6:5, would thus constitute one paragraph; Jos 6:1 being a parenthetical statement of the historical circumstance which gave occasion for this divine intervention; and the division of chapters ought to be before or after the entire paragraph. That the Angel should be at last recognized by the narrator as Jehovah and so designated, Jos 6:2, is in full accordance with Gen 18:17; Gen 18:20. This conception of the scene prevents the theophany from being so aimless and void of result as it otherwise appears.

Is it accidental merely that the former appearance also of the Jehovah-angel, to Abraham, is represented as having occurred immediately after the circumcision of his family, Genesis 17.Tr.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Circumcision and the Passover were the two covenant signs and seals () of the O. T.

The former was, as Christ himself testifies, older than Moses; it was of the fathers (Joh 7:22), since God, as Stephen says, Act 7:8, had given the covenant of circumcision to Abraham. By it the nation was, through its fathers and youths, consecrated to Jehovah. That was to be indeed a holy people, which belonged to him as the people of his possession. To the true Israelites, therefore, who perceived in the circumcision of the flesh an index to the circumcision of the heart, which must be freed from all impurity even through pain, it was a token of exalted honor.14 In later times, indeed, upon the entrance of heathen customs, many became ashamed of it, and artificially removed the traces of it. It was performed, as is well known, on the eighth day (Gen 17:12; Luk 2:21), and only he who was circumcised could partake of the Passover which was the other covenant sign of the O. T. (Gen 12:1 ff., and especially Gen 12:43 ff.). This latter was of Mosaic origin, and was first of all a meal of thankful, joyous remembrance of the deliverance of the people out of Egypt, of their exemption () from the plague, of the rescue from the house of bondage. Both signs point beyond themselves to other and greater things, to baptism and the Lords supper, which are of a more universal, spiritual nature, but just as exactly and intimately connected with each other as circumcision and the Passover.

2. The captain of the Lords host is the angel of the presence or face (Exo 23:20) in whom was Gods name (Exo 5:21), of whom God says to Moses (Exo 33:14), My presence shall go, thereby will I lead thee. From the passages quoted he assumes an altogether peculiar position towards God, who raises him above all other angels, so that we may perhaps recognize in him the incarnandus. Comp. also Pro 8:30.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The terror of the Canaanites.The heart melts, courage flees when one knows not the living God yet hears of his mighty deeds.Where there is no confidence in God there is no courage. The consecration of the people for the occupancy of the Holy Land through, (1) the circumcision of the warriors born in the Wilderness. (2) The Passover kept by all Israel.Circumcision and the Passover in their typical relation to baptism and the Lords supper. The sacraments of the Old and those of the N. T.As the enjoyment of the paschal lamb and the sweet bread was conditioned on the circumcision of the participant, so is that of the Holy Supper on baptism.Of the true circumcision, which is performed not on the body but on the heart (Rom 2:29; Col 2:11).Death the punishment of disobedience.Through the wilderness to Canaan!The heavenly Canaan much richer, more lovely and beautiful than the earthly, of which, however, it is said that it is a land flowing with milk and honey.To-day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you! This word is fulfilled, (1.) at Gilgal; (2.) much more gloriously at Golgotha.The reproach of Egyptsin and its misery.

The first Passover on the soil of Canaan: (1) A feast of thankful remembrance; (2) a feast of blessed hope. The bread of the land although not manna, yet also bread from heaven!There is a manna which never fails. Comp. John 6, Revelation 2.The true bread of life.

The consecration of the army-leader Joshua by the appearance of the captain of Gods army. (1) Who stood opposite him? (2) How did Joshua behave? (3) What command did he receive?The brave question of Joshua: Art thou for us or our adversaries?The prince of the Lords host in his relation to Christ the prince of life.Joshuas humility the more beautiful because accompanied with steadfast courage. So should Christians also be as Joshua was, courageous and humble minded. They will be so if they themselves know the true source of courage and humility, the living God.Loose thy shoes from off thy feet, for, etc. Comparison of the call of Moses (Exodus 3) and the consecration of Joshua.Comparison of the consecration of the leader Joshua and of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6).And Joshua did so. Let us also always do what God commands.

Starke: Gods words and works have not the same effect with the ungodly and the pious.If the Israelites could not without the bodily circumcision enter the earthly Canaan, how should it be possible for any one without the spiritual circumcision of the heart to enter into the heavenly Canaan.Who loves God, him God loves in return and reveals Himself to him (Joh 14:21).Even the exalted in this world should not be ashamed to bow the knee before God. 1Ki 8:54; Psa 95:6.

Bibl. Wirt: When God will punish a land or a people He gives them first a fearful and faint heart, Lev 26:36; Deu 28:65; Deu 11:25.

Cramer: He who will have prosperity and a blessing, must begin his enterprise with God, with his word and the use of the holy sacraments, Pro 1:7, Mat 6:33. God usually performs no miracles when one can have natural means to accomplish something, and then He points us to the ordinary way of subsistence and toil; He will bless that and will support us therein. Therefore, Christian, sing, pray, and go on in Gods ways.

Gerlach: The Lord cometh, when his people especially feel their need of his help, and become comfortably conscious of his presence and aid, Gen 18:1.

[Matt. Henry (on Jos 5:13-15): Observe, I. the time when he was favored with this vision; it was immediately after he had performed the great solemnities of circumcision and the Passover; then God made Himself known to him. Note, we may then expect the discoveries of the divine grace, when we are found in the way of our duty, and are diligent and sincere in our attendance on holy ordinances.

II. The place where he had this vision; it was by Jericho. There he was (some think) meditating and praying; and to those who are so employed God often graciously manifests Himself. Or, perhaps, there he was to take a view of the city, to observe its fortifications and contrive how to attack it, and perhaps he was at a loss within himself how to make his approaches, when God came and directed him. Note, God will help those that help themselves: Vigilantibus non dormientibus sucurrit lexThe law succors those who watch, not those who sleep. Joshua was in his post as General when God came and made Himself known to him as Generalissimo.Tr.]

Footnotes:

[1][Jos 5:7.More accurately: And their sons he raised up in their stead: them Joshua circumcised; for they were uncircumcised; for they had not circumcised them by the way.Tr.]

[2][Jos 5:14.Scarcely any problem is more perplexing to the translator of the O. T. than to find appropriate designations for the officials and dignitaries, civil and military, among the Jews and related nations. The word has already afforded an illustration. An identical revision of the entire O. T. with reference to this point would doubtless be requisite to remedy the difficulty, and could then, from the very nature of the case, attain only to partial success. The English Vers. is, however, unnecessarily vague. Thus, besides captain, as here, is rendered by at least a dozen different terms, while captain answers to nearly or quite as many Hebrew words. The same is true of , prince, and in a great measure of many others. The result is indistinctness and confusion to the reader where the Hebrew to the Hebrews was probably clear and specific. Doing our best, we could not, perhaps, from our inadequate terminology in this sphere, do with less than three different words for , in its civil, military, and occupational applications; as captain or general (used 1Ch 27:34), governor, chief. And so mutatis mutandis with the rest.Tr.]

[3][Jos 5:14.If, as many suppose, the angelic communication was interrupted here by Joshuas startled sense of awe and reverence, the connection would be better indicated by a dash in place of the period, thus: Am I now comeAnd Joshua etc.Tr.]

[4][Yet this form of expression has been not without reason long held, and still is by Keil and others, as a proof that the narrative was written by one who had shared in the transaction.Tr.]

[5][See Dr. Hacketts addition to art. Knives, in Smiths Dict. of the Bible, Amer. ed.Tr.]

[6][Keil elaborately calculates that from 670,000 to 720,000 required to be circumcised, while there were besides from 280,000 to 330,000 circumcised in early life who might perform the labors of the Passover celebration.Tr.]

[7][Besides the common answer to the question, Why the rite of circumcision had been disused for thirty-eight years in the wilderness, namely, that the unsettled condition of the people would not allow it to be practiced conveniently or safely (?) Masius subjoined: Quod filii non circumcidermtur, pn species fuisse videtur qua Deus non tam ipsos plectebat filios quam impiorum parentum urebat animos, quum viderent liberos suos sacrosancti fderis symbolo carere. Huc enim, mihi certe, videntur spectare illa in Numeris xiv.. 33 Dei verba, cum dicit: Vestra ipsorum corpora, etc., q. d. quia abdicastis vos a mea familia per rebellionem, filis quoque vestri adoptionis nota carebunt quamdiu vos in vivis eritis. Several modern critics (Keil, Hengstenberg) make this the principal reason for the long abeyance of circumcision.Tr.]

[8][There is no evidence, however, that there had been any town or inhabited place here before to require a name at all. No trace of one has been discovered or is likely to be. It was merely a suitable camping-ground, as they found it, perhaps on the easternmost verge of fertile landJosephus says it was about one and a quarter miles from Jericho,and was named simply by and for themselves. And why not Gilgal (as suggested by rolling) then as well as anything? It certainly is not against this that people of the same language gave the same name to many other places for related reasons.Tr.]

[9][And yet, considering that the law forbade them (Lev 23:14) to eat roasted ears, etc., until the day on which they brought an offering to their God, which offering (Jos 5:12) was to be made on the day in which they waved the sheaf, which again (Jos 5:11) was the morrow after the Sabbath (commonly understood to mean here the day of holy convocation, i.e. the fifteenth of the month), there is much reason for Keils view. And so many commentators have always held. The chief doubt seems to rest on the reference of the word Sabbath in this passage. See the main points of the dispute indicated in Smiths Dict, of Bible, Art. Passover, (g) p. 2346, and Pentecost, note b, p. 2341 f.Tr.]

[10][This is probable, yet the pillar of cloud and fire has for some time disappeared from the narrative.Tr.]

[11][Comp. the phenomena of Honey-dew familiar to every naturalist. This sometimes occurs over wide districts of America and Europe in such abundance as to drop freely from the leaves and twigs of various species of trees, while yet several years may elapse without any at all, or at the most only a trifling quantity being seen. Apiarians have much occasion to notice it. Whether it is uniformly the excretion of Aphides in any of their widely different kinds, or sometimes a direct exudation from the trees, and if the latter, from what cause, are still disputed questions. On the whole subject of the manna see the Dict. of the Bible, s. v.; Ritter in Gages Transl. ii pp. 271292.Tr.]

[12][Dr. Stowe in the Bible Dict. s. v. regards it as wholly miraculous.]

[13][The , now, in this phrase is probably designed to indicate that the speaker is present to make a communication of importance, cf. Dan 9:22; Dan 10:11; Dan 10:14. So Masius, referring to those passages: Significant iste verba eum qui sic loquitur de re quapiam singulari adesse, suamque prsentiam declarare.Tr.]

[14][On the significance of circumcision, see Ebrards interesting views in his Dogmatik, 526, briefly stated by the present writer in the Baptist Quarterly for July, 1869.Tr.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

This is a very interesting Chapter, and contains several very memorable events. Israel is now entering the frontiers of Canaan. The Canaanites are alarmed. Israel is animated. The Lord, as if to remind them of his covenant engagements, commands the rite of circumcision to be renewed, which had been long omitted. The feast of the Passover also, after eight and thirty years neglect is again celebrated. The Lord victuals the camp with the good things of the land of Canaan. The manna ceaseth. The captain of the Lord’s host appeareth to Joshua.

Jos 5:1

Observe the terror induced in the minds of God’s enemies: and no wonder. The mighty stream of Jordan yet more mighty than usual, from the season of the year overflowing its banks, had opened a passage for Israel, and evidently in a miraculous manner. The kings of Canaan recollected the circumstance of the Red Sea also. Who can stand when God opposeth? Reader! do not fail to spiritualize this passage, as the Holy Ghost, it should seem, hath done before you. For when the church of the Lord Jesus, is represented as coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved; that is, resting on him and his righteousness, the world of carnal men, like these kings of Canaan, is represented as beholding the sight, and exclaiming, Who is this that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners? Son 6:10 . Such, dear Jesus! is thy church, viewed in thy strength, and complete in thy righteousness!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Ceasing of the Manna

Jos 5:12

There was a deep doctrine in the giving of the manna. There was a doctrine not less deep in its withdrawal.

I. The ceasing of the manna should teach us that there is inevitable loss in all our gains. It was a great thing for Israel to gain the plains of Jericho, but when they had done so, they lost the bread of angels.

We talk sometimes about the gains of our losses, and it is true that we often gain by what we lose. But remember that if we gain by what we lose, it is also true that we lose by what we gain. And he alone is wise and brave and cheerful who recognizes that inevitable law, and presses forward, undaunted, to the best with the courage to forget what is behind. We gain the promised land and lose the manna. We gain experience and lose the morning dew.

II. The ceasing of the manna teaches us to be very cautious in asserting that anything is indispensable. If there was one thing graven upon the heart of Israel it was that without the manna they could not live at all. They had to learn their lesson from that failure that God fulfils Himself in many ways. The manna ceased, but the harvesting began.

III. The ceasing of the manna gave to Israel new views of the presence and providence of God. It taught them to see God in common things, and to realize His presence in the fields. The manna ceased they were cast back on nature to find in nature the same care of God. And so they learned, what is so hard to learn, that providence had a wider reach than once they dreamed, and that the common field may be as full of heaven as the manna which is the bread of angels.

It is not very hard for any man to feel that God is near in the great hours. When there is nothing startling or arresting, what do you make of the providence of God? It is a great thing to see God in the miracle. It is a greater to see Him in the usual.

IV. There is one other lesson which I love to link with the ceasing of the manna. It is how God, as we advance in life, brings us back to the food of long ago. That was the path by which God led His people. He brought them back to the old, and it was new. That is the path by which God leads us all if we are in earnest to know and do His will.

G. H. Morrison, The Wings of the Morning, p. 44.

References. V. 12. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Blessed Sacrament, p. 143. W. Boyd Carpenter, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. 1897, p. 113.

The Armour of God

Jos 5:13

I. This ancient book of Joshua, while its simple purpose is to set forth the providence of God in one great episode of a nation’s history, is yet by common consent of the succeeding generations of men looked on, not merely as an historical record of the conquest of Canaan, but as a continual allegory of Christian life. Such was the conception of life, based on individual and general experience, in the minds of those who, when the sign of Christ’s cross was marked on our brow in baptism, pledged us thereby to a loyal soldiership in an unceasing warfare with evil. Such is the conception thrust upon us by the facts of life, which, as thought deepens and knowledge widens, confronts every son of God. Over against us there stands a man with his sword in his hand, unsheathed, drawn for the using, for offence, for action, for achievement. Over against us there lies a Jordan to be crossed, a Jericho to be assaulted, a Promised Land to be won, only in many an arduous campaign our weapon the sword of the Spirit, our strength the strength of Him Who has girt that sword upon us, Whose abiding Presence in our life is our sole promise and hope of successful soldiership.

Gathering the whole teaching together, who can deny the undoubted call to leave the wilderness of wandering, unpurposeful life, of cold-hearted, listless stagnation, and cross the river of resolve, to the place of effort and the country of combat?

II. A man with a drawn sword a weapon of offence for and with others. True, we need, and have given us, armour of defence as well; a shield of faith to guard us from our own fears and doubts and cares and sorrows, from the evil we see in nature and in man; a helmet of salvation the hope which strengthens the weak-hearted, which guards the place where thought abides, and where plans of battle and of work are formed; a breastplate to protect the heart, where lie the issues of life, the treasures of pure passion, the loves, the sorrows round these we are to bind the armour of righteous habit; and for the loins, where lies the strength of man, woven in and out in knitted muscle and sinew, there is the safeguard of truth the inevitable necessity of sincerity.

III. These for defence. But our motto is not defence, but defiance; and for this there is the sword of the Spirit the Word, the thought of God, all the Divine ideas expressed through the words and lives of men. Let it be drawn, and bright and clean, that so we may wage a continuing and a conquering warfare with evil around and within. Not defence alone, but defiance.

References. V. 13-14. W. H. Simcox, The Cessation of Prophecy, p. 89. V. 13-15. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv. No. 795. A. F. Winnington Ingram, Under the Dome, p. 254. C. Stanford, Symbols of Christ, p. 89. S. A. Tipple, Sunday Mornings at Norwood, p. 215. V. 14. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Deuteronomy, Joshua, etc., p. 123. VI. J. McNeill, Regent Square Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 161. VI. 2, 3. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi. No. 629. VI. 10, 11. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Deuteronomy, Joshua, etc., p. 132. VI. 17. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon-Sketches (2nd Series), p. 183. VI. 10. C. Leach, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xl. 1891, p. 262. VI. 25. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Deuteronomy, Joshua, etc., p. 140. VII. 1-12. Ibid., p. 145. VII. 3. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii. No. 1358. VII. 19, 20. J. T. Bramston, Sermons to Boys, p. 40. VII. 20. J. Vaughan, Sermons Preached in Christ Church, Brighton (7th Series), p. 94. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 113.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Memorable Events

Jos 5

THIS chapter is remarkable for two or three points which happily combine the miraculous and the experimental. Here and there we cannot touch the genius of the chapter at all, and then suddenly it descends upon familiar lines, so that we can interrogate it, and in a measure understand it, because it confirms our own personal experience. The foot of this ladder is upon the earth: the head of it is in the sky. Take the first verse:

“And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard 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” ( Jos 5:1 )

The heathen kings did not disbelieve in miracles. It seems as if we had lost a good deal by our civilisation. We have come into a very complicated state of existence, and are so fretted by questions and scepticisms as to be almost divested at once of our dignity and our peace. It must have been wonderful living in the days when miracles seemed to be quite credible, quite near at hand, topics of common converse, instances which men had seen with their own eyes. We have lost something by this cessation of the outward miracle. What we have lost is faith faith in human history, faith in the processes of human evolution and education: we have lived ourselves into the commonplace pointless. Lord Lytton says: “The man who has no faith in religion is often the man who has faith in a nightmare. Julius Caesar publicly denounced a belief in hereafter, and rejected the idea of a soul and a deity, yet muttered a charm when he entered a chariot, and did not cross the Rubicon until he had consulted the omens. Lord Herbert, of Cherbourg, writes a book against revelation, and asks a sign from heaven to tell him if his book is approved by his Maker. The man who cannot believe in the miracles performed by the Saviour, gravely tells us of a miracle vouchsafed to himself.” Thus we measure everything by our own experience and consciousness. We have lost the power of projecting ourselves into the universal consciousness of ancient and contemporary spiritual history. The heathen kings drew inferences from what had occurred around them. They said If the river has been crossed, the city is gone. They were not unreasoning or infantile minds. They saw somewhat of the logical issue of things. The power of following the seed to its fructification is what we have lost. Otherwise, we should all be prophets: we should know that as certainly as a man has told a lie he has dug a hell. We think the law will be modified, or turned aside, and that the thunderbolt of judgment will somehow be averted. We are not morally logical. We peddle about verbal sequences and account it cleverness to trace literary consequences, but what about moral concatenation and issue? Were we as bold in the matter of inference as were the heathen kings, we should know that the moment a man has given up self-control he is damned. It seems to be a great leap from the first step to the last, but that is moral logic, that is spiritual sequence; as a question of logic there is no way of getting out of it. What then can be done? All men have surely been false, and all men have surely done that which is wrong. There comes the sublimity of divine revelation. God takes up the case: the great miracle is performed from above. There is no halting between falsehood and perdition; so far as the man is concerned, his first lie killed him. The first act of disobedience “brought death into our world and all our woe.” Death is not the result of a series of actions; it is the result of a thought, a purpose, a deed. Whilst thus we contemplate with a kind of inexcusable dignity the kings and mighty men who lived long ages ago, and even begin to question whether they lived at all or not, they seized the great idea of process, development, and culmination: they knew that one miracle meant all miracles. They did not ask for another sign from heaven as the unbelieving Jews were always asking. Therein was the sophistry of the Jewish reasoning and the folly of the Jewish relation to the great Man of their day: they did not know that one miracle meant all miracles, one lie meant all the fire of eternity burning the liar. We, too, seem to suppose that only at the end of a series of offences can certain penal consequences arise. That may be well for mere social convenience, that may be a proper limit for human magistracy and imperfect power; but looking at things in the light of heaven and the light of eternity, to tell one lie is to go into everlasting punishment. Who, then, can be saved? None by himself. No man has the power to rub out a lie. You cannot expunge a falsehood; once done, it is done for ever, so far as the doer is concerned. If there be any balm in Gilead, if there be any physician there, if there be any undreamed of love and power in heaven, if it lie within the circuit of Almighty power and infinite wisdom to meet the case, so be it; but within the limits of the man’s own life and responsibility and power, the lie means hell. Blessed be God, there is a gospel in relation to this a Cross, a Saviour, a way out of it all, not to be understood or reduced to words which always exactly fit the occasion, but to be seized by faith and appropriated by the hunger of the helpless heart. Heathen kings lost spiritual conviction, and therefore their arms fell right down by their sides. It is when the heart “melts” that the arm gives in. Men fight with the heart; men live with the heart; men return to the battle because of the inspiration of the heart. What wonder, then, if the Christian teacher should come forward and say, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness”? Man does not lay a withered hand upon leaven’s pillars and draw himself up by that palsied grasp. It is with the heart we live and suffer and return to the battle; it is the heart which says To-morrow shall see victory; tomorrow we bury the enemy in the grave. The walls of Jericho were still standing; all the kings of the Amorites and all the kings of the Canaanites had their armies intact and all their resources at hand, but “their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more.” And what is a man without heart, without spirit, without moral confidence? To know that righteousness is not with us is to have all the pith taken out of our muscles; to know that we are going into the garden to kiss an innocent Christ and thus betray him is, when we see him, to fall right back, blanched and dead. Be right in spiritual conviction. Know that the thing proposed to be done is right, wise, good; and then the rest will be peace, victory, enduring, untainted honour.

Another interesting point occurs in the sixth verse:

“For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that he would not shew them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.” ( Jos 5:6 )

Here we find what we are constantly seeing: a new generation but a permanent humanity. According to this statement all the people that were men of war which came out of Egypt were consumed. The Israel that entered Canaan was not the Israel that left Egypt, so far as detail was concerned. This is the mystery of human development or human progress. Men die man lives. The generation passes away humanity abides. God thus raises up a Church to himself. Much is apparently lost by the way: the leaves of a thousand years ago are all dead and buried, or have entered into chemic relations with the universe which we cannot follow, but the tree on which they grew still stands, lifting itself up to the blue heavens, and waiting next year’s inspiration and fruitfulness. Here lies a truth which many men dare not really put into words, which cannot be so put into words as to explain itself to everybody. We must grow up into some mysteries, pass into them subtly and come to their realisation suddenly; they are not to be explained or made matters of controversy; they are to be seized by the expand ing and strengthening mind; they are to be appropriated by the refined and sanctified consciousness. The mocker might step in here and say, Where are they who left Egypt to come to a land of promise? They are dead; their carcases are in the wilderness. That is historically, and as a matter of detail, true; but humanity is in man. The great human quantity is within the individual detail. The Church is within the sinner. Here are men who, like ourselves, were born in the wilderness but destined for Canaan. That is human life in a sentence. All these people were children of the wilderness, yet they were not meant for the wilderness as a final settlement; they knew it: the spirit of marching was in them; the angel of battle moved them to arms. Is it not so in our own consciousness? We were born in poverty, but never meant to remain there; we were born under great disadvantages, but had a soul given to us which said We will beat them all down, stand upon them, and make use of them to heighten the very honour and dignity the Lord has enabled us to win. We are all wilderness-born: we have no right to remain in the wilderness or to die in it. The men died in the wilderness, “because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord” and there cannot be two Lords, two Masters, two Sovereigns, two thrones. “Hear, O Israel,” O humanity, “the Lord our God is one Lord.” Do not let us set up our little will and whim and idea as against the eternal purpose, but fall down and resolutely and tenderly pray that we may know God’s will and do it every syllable. That is “the whole duty of man.” God is disappointed with the individuals, but he will be pleased with the race. When God made Adam he did not make an Adam; he made what “Adam” signifies man. The judgment of God does not lie as between himself and the one little creature we call a man. God is not set up as the centre of innumerable details any one of which may crush his purpose and render his decree a nullity. God takes another view of man: As I live, saith the Lord, the whole earth shall be filled with my glory. What part or lot are we about to play in this matter? Fool is he who thinks he can rule back the purpose of God or tear in twain the covenant of Heaven. It is one of two things: we fall upon the stone and are broken, or the stone falls upon us and we are ground to powder. Do not let us contend about terms or technicalities, or avail ourselves of all the suggestions offered by a crudely-formed and crudely-expressed theology. Here lies the infinite truth, confirmed by all life, that there can be but one will that is right, one God blessed for evermore. He will carry out his purpose. He has vowed as it were by his life, his eternity, that his word shall not return unto him void. He may be cast out, reviled, killed; but he will still have the whole earth for his inheritance and humanity for a gem in his crown. “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” Every man has within himself the power not the right of self-damnation; but God’s word shall be fulfilled, though it take innumerable ages to accomplish it, that man shall stand in his image and likeness. He will never cease to work until the image is perfected. Whoever comes, whoever goes, though the wilderness be one infinite cemetery, God shall have a seed to serve him and to call Jesus blessed. We can fight, we can disobey, we can have our own poor way, all that lies within the possibility of sin; but it comes to nothing, except dishonour and ruin and death.

The most interesting point of all is found in Jos 5:11-12 :

“And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn 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.” ( Jos 5:11-12 )

The manna had fallen in the wilderness thirty-nine years and eleven months, excepting on the Sabbath-day. A modern commentator says: “The manna finally ceased or kept Sabbath on the very day afterwards marked by our Lord’s resurrection, which became the Lord’s day.” Now this is matter of simple arithmetical calculation. There is no possibility of so using figures and dates as to mislead the mind upon this particular; and here, by a process of rigid arithmetical demonstration, it is made clear that the manna finally kept Sabbath on the very day afterwards marked by our Lord’s resurrection; and our Lord replaced the manna of ancient teachers by himself saying: I am the true Bread sent down from heaven: eat of me eat of this old corn; other means of sustenance are done away, and I am the Bread sent down from heaven. Some very striking inferences immediately follow the perusal of this state of things. For example, here we have the reason for the cessation of miracles. When did the manna cease to fall? Immediately that there was corn to be eaten. No sooner was it possible to live, as we should say naturally, than the supernatural method of existence was ended. This is God’s method all through. There is no further need for manna, the manna will cease to be rained upon the wilderness. When we can find food for ourselves God will not find it for us otherwise than primarily, otherwise than by showing us how to discover and appropriate it. This is the beauty of righteousness: this is the very centre and soul of the divine discipline of mankind. When we are in the wilderness and cannot grow corn, we shall not die of hunger, for God will intervene and sustain the life of his servants. Have no fear; let your courage abide in God. When the times are so hard and cruel and difficult that it is impossible for any honest man to live by natural methods and ordinary customs, God will not see him lost for want of sustenance. No man can say how that sustenance will be found, but it will be supplied. We may speak sometimes of the method of its production almost flippantly, or regard it with some measure of indifference, but in our most serious moods we shall come to the conclusion that after all there is a hand, infinite in power and in tenderness, working amid the affairs of men. But the other lesson is just as true. When the times are not so hard and impracticable and inhospitable, when men can dig and sow and cut down and grind and bake their bread, God will allow natural processes to be resumed, and he will so far throw us upon them as to withdraw what may be termed the supernatural or unimaginable. This is the very way of life. It is the right way in the house; it is the right way in the culture and upbringing of little children; it is the very secret of Providence: God always near to us if there is no meat in the wilderness; God always ready to train by labour when labour is possible. So we are called to duty, to diligence. We are not to look for the supernatural so long as the natural is available. What do we want with the miracles when the whole land simply waits to be cultivated in order to answer our industry with abundant harvest? If any thing unrighteously stand in the way of this it must go down: it will inevitably go down, for God is with humanity the whole, the sum-total quantity, with man, and for man all things shall be smoothed, and man shall pass on to the fulfilment of the divine idea. Not one word here can be spoken for indolence; not a single excuse can be set up for reluctance to labour. The light was made to work in. He who invented a jet that should break up the darkness invented a method of extending the sphere of industry. We are not to look to fathers and mothers to do for us what we can do for ourselves; it is unmanly, ignoble, unworthy. Depend upon it the fatherly and motherly spirit will see that the wilderness be turned into a fruitful field, if it be impossible for us to do anything by ourselves; but when that possibility is an open fact it is right that fatherly and motherly care should be withdrawn, and if not withdrawn its continuance becomes a crime.

A wonderful process we have seen in all these readings. We have seen the cloud by day displaced, giving way to the ark of the covenant. Hence the words, “Ye have not passed this way heretofore,” that is, as we have seen, Ye have not heretofore had the ark of the covenant ahead of you, but only a symbolic cloud now the cloud goes and you follow a written document. We have seen the manna displaced by the corn of Canaan: there is no more manna because the corn is plentiful, and nature will not do the work of the supernatural: the work of the supernatural is not indeed amid the bountifulness of nature. And, further than this, let us remind ourselves again and again, we know Christ no more after the flesh. Paul says, “He is risen.” He is vanished. There is no fleshly Christ now. The great dispensation of the Spirit has opened. Under that dispensation we live. How wondrously we have returned to the cloud period and the fire-by-night method of guiding the world! for what is the Spirit but as it were a cloud without measure, impalpable, a fire we cannot touch, yet whose radiance and warmth are always available? We live under the dispensation of the Spirit, under the dispensation of new influences, new movements of the soul, daily inspirations from Heaven; and so living, it is not for this man or that man in his individuality to arise and set up any Church in his own name, saying, I have a special revelation from God. To-day it is humanity that is inspired, the whole Church that is a sacred priesthood. This, from my point of view, is the true philosophy of succession. It is folly to dispute that great principle. Whoever disputes it dissociates himself from organic history and from organic humanity. From the first the principle of succession has been asserted in the Scriptures; to the last things were committed from man to man put in trust, so that they have been handed on from one generation to another. The only thing to insist upon now is this: that the Church is the great individual the whole Church, not as broken up into communions, one having the partiality of Heaven and another living under the disapprobation of the skies, but the whole redeemed Church. There is a common sentiment, a common cry a great, grand faith common to every soul in all the uncounted host. It is when we introduce our petty opinions, and one man sets up his inferences as against the inferences of some other man, that we lose touch and lose the altar, and lose God. From these verbal controversies we must retire, and know that the kingdom of heaven is not in contentions, in philosophies, in vain representations of self-will and self-opinion; but under all forms of worship, under all ecclesiasticisms, there is a spirit common to the whole redeemed Church. To realise the presence of that spirit is to enter into the very mystery of the work of Christ and to understand what he meant when he prayed that we might all be one, as he was in the Father and the Father in him.

Prayer

Almighty God, thou art writing thy signs upon the heavens and upon the earth, and upon all the flying days of time. Blessed is he who can read them and apply their lessons to his heart, and walk according to their meaning. We can discern the signs of the weather how is it we cannot discern the signs of the times? We have quick vision in some directions, and yet we are quite blind in others. We are double men, eloquent, yet dumb; bright of eye, yet dull of perception. We cannot tell what we are, we are so confused and bewildered within our own consciousness. Sometimes we think we see the dawning light: then we sing like birds that are glad; then the whole sky is a great cloud, unbroken, unblessed with a single star; and then we sink into silence and despair. We have no constancy of life, no steadfastness of faith; our souls as to their moods veer about like the incalculable wind. We pray that our faith may be established, that it may be broad, massive, not to be shaken, strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Lord, increase our faith especially in solidity, that we may be the same tomorrow as today, confidently hoping in God. We know what thy word is: we are ennobled as we read it; no man can utter such words as thou hast written without being enlarged by their very perusal: they are sublime, they are full of God. Still, we cannot see the application of thy words; we look upon life within some one day and say Behold, the purpose of Heaven is frustrated, and the counsel of the Most High is turned upside down. We are impatient, because ignorant; we are furious, because weak. We would be calm with the peace of God. Help us to live every moment as if it were the last. May the spirit of solemnity touch our whole life; yet may we feel that the highest solemnity is consistent with the purest joy. The Lord grant unto us clear shining after rain. The Lord bless us with the sound of the turtle when the winter is over and gone. We love the summer: we long for things that are verdant and beauteously coloured, and we long to hear all nature sing. If the winter days must come, give us a brave heart, a true faith, and may we so live in Christ, God the Son, that the winter itself shall be but a variation of summer. We can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. He is the mighty Saviour, he is the infinite Redeemer; there is none other who can save. He died for us, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. We know that we are the unjust; we would flee unto the living Christ and ask him to give us all he has; the very asking shall express a divine inspiration, the very desire shall bring its own answer and comfort: thou dost not excite such passions in the soul without gratifying them with a great content. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XX

THE MIRACULOUS PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN AND EVENTS AT GILGAL

Jos 1:10-5:15

This section commences at Jos 1:10 and extends to Jos 5 . We will make more rapid progress in the book, having gotten through with the preliminaries. The theme is, miraculous passage of the Jordan and the marvelous events that occurred at Gilgal after they passed the Jordan.

1. Analyze Joshua’s commandment to the people.

Ana. (1) He commanded them to get ready to cross the Jordan in three days.

(2) He commanded that the armed men of the two tribes located east of the Jordan, the Reubenites, Gadites and the rest of the tribes help to conquer the lands on the east side.

2. What word is repeatedly stressed by Joshua in this command to the two and a half tribes? What use previously made of this word by Moses and will be made of it by the writers of both Old and New Testaments?

Ans. The word “rest.” We find that Moses uses that word in Deu 25:19 ; Deu 25:19 th verse where he says, “When you have been established in Canaan and God has given you rest.” We find the same word employed in Psa 95 , where there is a reference to those who did not enter into the rest because of their disobedience. They died by the wayside. And in Heb 3:7 ; Heb 4:13 , there is a continuous discussion of that “rest” as applied to Joshua the type of Jesus Christ. It will be very interesting for you to study that in Hebrews particularly, because in it lies the cream of the discussion of the New Testament sabbath.

3. What condition was prescribed by Moses in allotting territory east of the Jordan to the two and a half tribes, and what solemn promises had they made?

Ans. If you will turn to Num 32:20-24 , you will find that Moses, when these people asked to have the east part as their part, told them that the only condition upon which it would be granted was that when the Jordan was crossed they should send these tribes and help to conquer the other land, and they made a solemn promise to Moses that when the time came they would do that very thing

4. How did they respond to that promise, and what the later evidence of a fair fulfilment of it?

Ans. You learn from your lesson Jos 1:16-18 , that they readily recalled what they had promised to Moses and promptly announced their Willingness to do what they said they would do. If you turn to Jos 22:1-8 , you will find that at the end of the conquest Joshua gives them a receipt in full of having kept their promise to the letter.

5. How long were they thus away from their own homes, wives and children and property, that is, the men of the Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and what comment do you make on this fidelity?

Ans. Generally, I will say that they were away from their wives and children and property seven years. And the comment is that there is no parallel to this in the history of the world. All the able-bodied men leaving their homes, wives and children and property and going away armed to engage in a terrible war that was to be prosecuted west of the river, fulfilling their engagement to the letter before they ever go back and enjoy their rest as the other tribes were now prepared to do.

6. What event preceded the passage of the Jordan, and what the salient points of the story? Ans. This event was the sending out of the two spies by Joshua to find out the condition of the country and report back to Joshua. The salient points of the story are: (1) When these two men went into Jericho they were received at this lodging-house of a harlot. Why? Probably if they had gone to one of the regular inns or caravansaries they would have been apprehended by the officers of the king. But the true reason was that this woman, because she believed in Jehovah, invited them to come to her house. (2) What the evidences of her faith? These evidences are as follows:

(a) What she did. She received, lodged, sheltered, and protected the messengers of God’s people because they were God’s people. That was her motive, illustrating the words of our Lord in his address to his apostles, “When I send you into the city, you go to a house, and if there be a son of peace in that house, let your peace rest on that house” (Mat 10 ). And where he further says, “Whosoever receiveth you receiveth me, and whosoever receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward.” Now, this woman did so receive these people.

(b) What she said. Read exactly what she said, Jos 2:8-11 : “And before they were laid down she came up unto them upon the roof; and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things our hearts did melt because of you; ‘for the Lord your God he is in heaven above and in earth beneath.” Now, that is what she said. Then notice further (c) what she did as an evidence of her faith.

She asked that as she had sheltered them as messengers of God’s people, when they came to take possession of Jericho, they would exempt her and her family from the doom that would fall upon the city. And they gave her a duty to perform as a token. First, that she would bring her kindred into her house and stay there. The walls of Jericho would fall in the other parts of the city but not in that part. Second, that she was to hang a scarlet cord out of the window through which she had let down the spies to enable them to escape over the wall. The binding of the scarlet thread in the window was the token.

(d) The fourth evidence is found in Heb 11:31 , and Jas 2:25 . Another salient point in connection with the story of the spies is that this woman married an Israelite and became an ancestress of Boaz, David, and our Lord. We read about that when we come to Ruth and when we read the genealogy in the New Testament. The next incident is the great sermon preached by Spurgeon on the text, “And she bound the scarlet thread in the window.” He puts a good deal of stress on the “scarlet” as referring to the blood of salvation. The last point is, the spies returned and reported to Joshua that their enemies were panic stricken.

7. What the arrangement or program of crossing the Jordan?

Ans. (1) They must sanctify themselves. That means that they were to perform the ablutions that are required in that kind of setting apart to the service of God, and offer the sacrifice

(2) That the ark must precede the marching by a sabbath day’s journey, 2,000 cubits.

(3) That God himself would that day magnify Joshua in the eyes of the people as he had magnified Moses at the passage of the Red Sea.

(4) That God’s presence would be manifested in marvelous power.

(5) The cutting off of the waters of the Jordan, not dividing them as the Red Sea was divided, but cutting them off.

(6) That Israel should pass over safely.

(7) That a memorial should be erected of that passage.

8. Describe the execution of this program and the effect on their enemies, Jos 5:1 .

Ans. It is of thrilling interest that just as at the passage of the Red Sea they were to stand still and see the power of the Lord, so here. That was something which God would do, not they themselves. Just as soon as the priests, carrying the ark (a sabbath day’s journey), touched the edge of the swollen waters of the Jordan, that very moment, as if a knife had been let down from heaven, the Jordan was cut in two, and all the waters below flowed on to the Dead Sea and all the waters coming down from above, that mighty rush of the “Descender,” were stayed there and massed up and the backwater extended for over thirty miles. By the breath of the Almighty, that turbulent tide in the day of its flood, flowing over that down grade, stopped right there, damned up, not by a wall, but by the Word of God, and there stood the priests in silence, carrying the ark of God. As soon as the way was open, the priests standing still, the whole of that mighty host of 3,000,000 people with all of their animals and goods passed over that empty bed of the river.

Joshua commanded one representative of each tribe to take a rock out of the bed of the river and right where the priests had been standing in the bed of the river, each one of the men should take a rock on his shoulder, and they should carry those stones, and they did just that way. Here came twelve representatives and took up twelve huge rocks and carried them ahead of the column and never put them down until they got to the place where they were going to lodge, and there those stones were placed together as an everlasting memorial of that deliverance. The effect upon the enemy was that it intensified their panic. God said that those Canaanite inhabitants should know that he was God and the story of that divine presence and the display of his power is circled around the world through all the succeeding ages.

9. How do you reconcile Jos 4:9 , with Jos 4:20 ?

Ans. Jos 4:9 , says that Joshua took stones and set up a column right where the priests had stood in the bed of the river, and Jos 4:20 , says that they took the stones across the river and a memorial was erected at the place where they stopped. There are only two ways of reconciling those two statements. One is that the pillar that was erected by Joshua where the priests stood was done not by the command of God, but appropriately done to mark the spot where the priests stood. It is not said that they used the twelve memorial stones carried by the representatives of the tribes, to build that structure. A good many commentaries say there were two monuments erected, one in the bed of the river and another in the camp where they remained a long while, even years. Now, that is one explanation and the more probable one. Another explanation is, that in reading Jos 4:9 , you read it this way, “and Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the midst of the Jordan where the feet of the priests had stood who bare the Ark of the Covenant.” That is a simple statement of what is going to be more elaborately stated in Jos 4:20 and provides for only one monument The first is a brief statement and the second a more elaborate statement. I will leave you to wrestle with the apparent contradiction.

10. What evidences in the later prophets that Israel misused this memorial of Gilgal by making it a place of idolatry? Give a similar case.

Ans. (1) You will find in Hos 4:15 ; Hos 9:15 , and Amo 4:4-5 .

(2) The similar case was the case of the brazen serpent. The brazen serpent that had been lifted up in the wilderness was kept as a memorial, but in Hezekiah’s time the people began to burn incense to it and Hezekiah broke it to pieces, saying, “Nehushtan,” it is only a piece of brass.

11. What the educational uses of this memorial and what similar use of a preceding memorial?

Ans. This section tells us in Jos 4:21-24 , that when the children asked, “Why do you bring these rocks from the river? Why do you set them up here?” they should diligently teach their children that it commemorated the great power of God in cutting off the waters of the Jordan, that his people might pass over in safety. What similar use of a preceding memorial? You will find it in Exo 12:26-27 . They were to eat the first Passover standing with their loins girt about them. Now, after that in their later history the first thing little children will say, “This is a strange dinner, being bitter herbs, roasted lambs, and eating it standing.” Then you may say to your children, “This is the Lord’s Passover.” I think these two incidents about the educational use of the memorials contains a very fine lesson showing the duty of parents whenever a child asks, “Why these monuments?” The first time I ever noticed the Fourth of July, I asked, “Why, what does this mean?” A child naturally asks “why” about Christmas. And a stranger looking at Bunker Hill Monument will ask, “Why this monument?” In Austin, near the Capitol, there is a monument that commemorates the Alamo. On the battlefield of San Jacinto is one, and on my pocketbook is inscribed what is written on the sides of that monument.

12. What the name of the place where the memorial was erected, its location, and how long did that place remain headquarters of the nation?

Ans. The place derived its name from an event that took place there, viz.: circumcision. Gilgal was in the upper part of Judea and not a great way, only a few miles, from Jericho, and for years the Ark rested there, and it was the place of assembly for the nation. It remained until we come to Jos 18 ; there, after the conquest, Shiloh is selected as the headquarters until the ark was captured by the Philistines. Later that ark was brought to Jerusalem, as their headquarters throughout the rest of their history.

13. What great events happened in that first camp?

Ans. (1) The males of the younger generation were circumcised. They had not circumcised any children during the thirty-eight years of wanderings. The old generation had passed away and everybody born in the thirty-eight years, of course, was uncircumcised. Now at that place they were circumcised.

(2) The second great event that took place was that their manna ceased. For forty years that manna had been coming down from heaven) but now they were eating of the new harvest of the Promised Land, and the temporary provision for their food ceased when it was no longer necessary; the cessation of the manna which was a standing miracle for forty years.

(3) The third great event was that there they kept the Passover. No Passover had been kept since they left Mount Sinai.

(4) The most important event that happened there was the appearance to Joshua of a pre-manifestation of Christ, a man with a drawn sword, the captain of the hosts of the Lord. In other words, Joshua, the type, meets face to face, in pre-manifestation, Christ, the antitype.

14. In the meantime what the state of Jericho, and why was the enemy idle while Joshua was remaining so long at Gilgal?

Ans. See Jos 5:11 ; Jos 6:1 . We learn from these passages of scripture, why. The first says the people of Jericho were under an awful fear of the people whose God could open that river, and the second reason is that they had shut their gates; that Jericho was sealed up because the Israelites were lying so near.

15. Describe and explain the meeting of Joshua, the type, with the pre-manifestation of Christ, the antitype.

Ans. Now, that explanation is given in Jos 5:13-15 . Joshua going his rounds meets a man standing with a drawn sword, who approached him and said, “Are you for us or against us?” The man said, “I am the captain of the host of Jehovah.” Later it says the Lord spoke to Joshua, but it means Jehovah. The object of the meeting of the captain on earth with the captain in heaven was to arrange the program for the capture of Jericho. As for the things that would follow that in overcoming the enemy, the people were to do nothing active. Jericho was to be taken by the Almighty and everything in it was devoted, put under ban, consecrated to Jehovah; the inhabitants to die, the property to go to the service of the sanctuary. This is he who later becomes captain of our salvation, who is known in the New Testament as the rider of the white horse, going forth, having written on his thigh, “King of kings and Lord of lords.” This pre-manifestation of Christ outlines Joshua’s campaign, establishes them, God opening the way.

16. Now here is a question. It says, Jos 5:9 , “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.” Now, what was this rolling away of the reproach of Egypt?

Ans. “The reproach of Egypt” was the charge they made that Jehovah Was not able to deliver Israel into the Promised Land. Now, since he has delivered them, he has “rolled away the reproach of Egypt” from off them. (Exo 32:12 ; Num 14:13-16 ; Deu 9:28 ).

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Jos 5:1 And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which [were] on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which [were] by the sea, heard 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.

Ver. 1. Heard that the Lord, &c. ] A : Ill news is swift of foot, and, like ill weather, cometh before it is sent for.

That their heart melted. ] This fearfulness and faintheartedness had utterly unmanned them, expectorated all their courage, and so fitted them for desolation. Deu 28:7 Metals melted lose their hardness: so men their hardiness by fear, that cowardly passion.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED TEXT): Jos 5:1

1Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel.

Jos 5:1 kings of the Amorites These people had city-states, like the Philistines and Greek peoples. These native inhabitants of Canaan lived in the hill country (cf. Num 13:29; Deu 1:7; Deu 1:20; Jos 10:6). See Special Topic: PRE-ISRAELITE INHABITANTS OF PALESTINE .

Canaanites These people lived along the coastal plain (shephelah). Often Amorites and Canaanites are used as a collective term for all of the native tribes of the Promised Land.

their hearts melted The VERB (BDB 587, KB 606, Niphal IMPERFECT) was used earlier in Jos 2:11. What a powerful metaphor (cf. Isa 13:7; Isa 19:1; Nah 2:10). It is used of the Israelis’ fear in Jos 7:5 and Deu 1:28; Eze 21:7. YHWH’s acts encouraged the Israelites and terrified the Canaanites.

NASB, NKJV,

NRSVthere was no spirit in them any longer

TEVlost their courage

NJBlost all courage to resist

This term (BDB 924) can mean breath, wind, or spirit. Here it is used for the human spirit (person) being discouraged and intimidated (cf. Jos 2:11; Psa 76:12; Psa 77:3; Psa 142:3; Psa 143:4; Pro 18:14; Isa 19:3). It is parallel to their hearts melted.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

the LORD. Hebrew Jehovah. App-4.

children = sons.

we. So written, but read “they”. Some codices have “they”, both written and read, with three early printed editions, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

melted. See note on Jos 2:9, Jos 2:11.

spirit. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 5

Now in chapter five we read where all of the adult males were at this point circumcised. It was a rite that they did not follow while they were in the wilderness. So that those who were born in the wilderness, now were men, did not go through the rite of circumcision. But now that they are to enter into the land, the circumcision was always a type of the cutting away of the heart after the flesh. God wanted a people whose heart was after the Spirit. So it was a symbolic act. God said, “Circumcise your hearts”( Deu 30:6 ). In other words, cut away from your heart that longing or desiring after the flesh.

Paul in the book of Romans speaks of the error of the Jews in observing a rite without the reality. Though they’d gone through the rite of circumcision, yet their hearts were after fleshly things; thus, there was an inconsistency there. Now that they’re gonna enter into this new relationship with God, coming into the land, because it is to typify a new relation after the Spirit, which is that new relationship that God wants to bring you into; a life of victory over the flesh.

So it was necessary that they go through the rite of circumcision, and all, of the adult males be circumcised in order that they might cut away the flesh; and thus, signify the fact that they were gonna walk after the Spirit and a heart after God. So as I said, it was not done in the wilderness and so it was done after they entered into the land. The first thing was this circumcision in order that they might again declare themselves a people unto God, to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh.

And so God said, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off of you. Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal ( Jos 5:9-10 ),

Which means a rolling, because God there rolled away that reproach of Egypt, which is a type of the flesh, and the life after the flesh. They longed for the flesh pots of Egypt. Egypt always is symbolic of living after the flesh and lusting after the flesh.

So Israel encamped in Gilgal, they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho ( Jos 5:10 ).

So this is the first Passover in the Promised Land. They came in just four days beforehand, circumcised themselves, and now are beginning this new relationship with God observing the Passover now in the new land.

And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, the unleavened cakes, the parched corn 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 ( Jos 5:11-12 ).

So again, coming in now to a new diet. The life of the Spirit is a life of variety. It’s a life of excitement. It really is thrilling to walk after the Spirit and live after the Spirit. You never know what God has planned for you today. It’s just an exciting life, a life of variety. I never lack for excitement. Walking after the Spirit is the most exciting experience in the world. So they are leaving now the old manna, that monotonous kind of a diet, and now going to begin to eat of the fruits of the land that God has promised as they come into now the land of Canaan.

I love verses thirteen through fifteen.

And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and he looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said to him, Are you for us, or for our enemies? And he said, Not for your enemies; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshiped, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so ( Jos 5:13-15 ).

Here Joshua met Jesus, Jesus the Captain of the Lord’s host. You see, if it were an angel then He would’ve refused his worship. John several times in the book of Revelation tried to worship the angel, and he said, “Stand up worship the Lord.” The Lord said, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only.” Therefore the Captain of the Lord’s host is none other than Jesus who is standing there ready to lead him into the land of promise. “As the Captain of the Lord’s host have I come.” Joshua fell on his knees, his face, and said, “What do you want me to do Lord?” Much like Paul the apostle. “Lord, what will You have me to do?”

Now here is a true picture of leadership. The finest leader is the man who is lead. The finest ruler is a man who is ruled. God chose Joshua for a leader to rule over the people of Israel because Joshua was ruled over by the Lord; the proper chain of command. No man is fit to rule who is not ruled. That’s the tragedy of history where we have had despots upon the throne. These autocratic, despotic rulers who did not feel a responsibility to anybody else, but became the final authority within themselves, they became tyrants. The people always suffer under the rule of such people. But those who have a consciousness of the fact that they are ruled, those who have submitted themselves to His throne, are able to reign upon their thrones. But you’ve got to have that chain of command.

When the centurion came to Jesus and sought that Jesus would heal his daughter who was very sick, Jesus said, “I will come to your house.”

He said, “Oh no Lord, that isn’t necessary. I’m not worthy that you should come to my house. For you see, I understand authority, I also am a man of authority having under me, men.” “I am also a man”, he said, “under authority, having under me men.” He sees the chain. “I’m a man who is under authority, but I have under me men.” He recognized the position of Jesus. Having submitted to the Father, a man under authority, yet having authority himself.

So I can say to one man, “Do this”, and he’ll do it, to another, “do that”, and he does it. I have authority, but I’m under authority. “I know that You have authority, and all You have to do is speak the word, and my servant will be healed.” God said, “All right. That’s far out. I haven’t seen this kind of faith among the Israelites.” A man who recognized what true authority is. Oh, that we would realize that we don’t have any right to rule unless we ourselves are ruled.

So Joshua, the leader over the people and yet being led. “What do you want me to do Lord?” The real heart of a servant. So the Lord didn’t have much for him to do, “Just take your shoes off. The ground where you’re standing is holy.” So much as the Lord spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, the command to remove his sandals, so also to Joshua. So as the Captain of the Lord’s host, to lead the people of God into the conquest of the land.

“

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

The effect on the people of this crossing of the Jordan is revealed in the words, “Their heart melted, neither was there any spirit in them any more.” Therefore time must again be taken for matters distinctly of worship.

During the forty years in the wilderness the rite of circumcision evidently had been neglected. There could be no triumphal progress until this had been corrected. Moreover, the nation, so far as its men were concerned, was now becoming a nation of soldiers who were to conduct a campaign of judgment against the corrupt and depraved people. As there can be no doubt that the rite of circumcision was based on holiness and purity of physical life, we see the importance of its enforcement anew at-this juncture.

Following this the great Passover feast was solemnly kept and thus the people were reminded again of the nature of their national existence.

At this time there appeared to Joshua himself the Captain or Prince of the hosts of the Lord, and he was thus made to recognize that his authority and leadership depended on his submission and obedience.

Thus, in different ways before a blow was struck, leader and people were compelled to recognize their dependence on God and the fact that they were but instruments in His hand, moving forward for the accomplishment of His purpose.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Renewing the Covenant with God

Jos 5:1-12

Evidently the people of Canaan realized that they were entering into conflict with God Almighty. This made their bitter resistance less excusable. But before Israel could go forward into the campaign, they must undergo that initial rite which from the days of Abraham had separated them unto God, Gen 17:1-27. The outbreak at Kadesh had practically annulled that relationship, which now must be renewed, Num 14:1-45.

Before we can serve Gods high purposes in the world, we must be separated from sin. The old nature must be denied and put away, and the new nature, which is holy, harmless and separate from sin, must become ours. Nothing but death can meet the case, Col 2:11; 2Co 7:1.

The circumcised soul alone may eat of the Passover, which is Christ. We need to feed on Him, keeping the daily feast with joy, 1Co 5:7-8; Joh 6:51; Joh 6:54.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

This chapter brings before us three outstanding subjects, all of which are of great importance in connection with our taking possession of the inheritance which God has given us in Christ. These may be indicated by three suggestive terms: Sharp Knives, Old Corn, and The Captain of Jehovahs Host.

The first of these topics comes before us in verses 1 to 9:

And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard 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. At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise; All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that He would not show them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that He would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. And their children, whom He raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way. And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of place is called Gilgal unto this day.

Israel had crossed the Jordan. They were now encamped between the river and the city of Jericho, whose high walls loomed before them. At the command of Joshua they were to go up against not only this city, but all the cities and nations that occupied the land of Canaan. In the strength of Jehovah, as they relied upon Him, they would be able to overcome these mighty foes-foes which speak to us of those wicked spirits in heavenly places who would seek to keep us from our enjoyment of our privileges in Christ.

But before attacking the enemy God called upon His people to use sharp knives upon their own flesh. The sharp knife speaks of self-judgment. Before a believer is fit to enter into combat with his spiritual enemies he needs to use this knife of self-judgment, which is the Word of God, in living power upon his own heart and life.

The rite of circumcision of old was designed by God to mark off His people from the nations around. It was a sign of separation, and it typified death to the flesh. The ancient rite is spoken of in Eph 2:11, as Circumcision made by hands. This, for the Christian, is no longer obligatory. It characterized Judaism and the Apostle Paul points out in the Epistle to the Galatians that everyone who goes back to that system, which God has now set aside, and depends upon the rite of circumcision to give him favor with God has fallen from grace; that is, he has left the high ground of salvation by grace alone and descended to the low level of attempted salvation by human merit. In place of the ancient sign, we read in Rom 2:29 of the circumcision which is of the heart; that is, the putting away from the heart of every impure and unclean lust, ambition, or tendency.

In the Epistle to the Colossians, believers are said to be circumcized with the circumcision of Christ; that is, His death upon the Cross is counted by God as their death, and this has put an end to their old relationship as men in the flesh doing their own will in opposition to the will of God. This is to be made practical by the use of the sharp knife of self-judgment.

In Colossians 3 we read: Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornification, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked sometime, when ye lived in them. The sins mentioned here are all such as every right-minded person recognizes as vile and abominable. The child of God is to deal unsparingly with any tendency toward these things which he finds in himself. He is to recognize himself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord.

But there are other sins which we are not inclined to think of as so obnoxious as those mentioned above and yet sins which are great hindrances to testimony for Christ. Of these we read in Colossians 3:8 to 11: But now ye also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all and in all. Many a servant of Christ has nullified his testimony by bad temper and a harsh attitude toward those who do not agree with him. This is as truly of the flesh as fornication or adultery, and against it one needs to use the sharp knife.

The reason Joshua was told to command the people of Israel to carry out the ordinance of circumcision at this time was because none of those born in the wilderness had been circumcised; therefore the reproach of Egypt was still upon them: they did not bear in their bodies the sign of separation unto God. But when His Word had been submitted to, the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. The camp where they were abiding at this time was then designated Gilgal, which means rolling and it speaks therefore of the place of self-judgment. They went forward afterward from this camp to battle and returned there when the conflict was over. So the soldier of Christ should ever encamp at the place of self-judgment and from there go forth in the power of the Spirit to meet his foes, returning thereto when the victory has been won; or if perchance he has met with defeat, going back to Gilgal to judge himself before God.

The second subject that comes before us is Old Corn, and of this we read in Jos 5:10-12:

And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn 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.

It is most interesting to note the deep significance of three different kinds of food upon which the people of Israel fed. When they kept the passover, which speaks of Christs death for us upon the Cross, they ate the flesh of the lamb roast with fire. Like the priests in the sanctuary they ate those things wherewith the atonement was made. For us this speaks of feasting our souls upon the work of our blessed Lord on Calvary. This is expressed beautifully in a well known hymn:

To Calvary, Lord, in spirit now

Our weary souls repair,

To feast upon Thy dying love

And taste its sweetness there.

As we meditate upon what the Lord Jesus went through for us in that hour when the judgment of God fell upon Him in order that our sins might forever be put away, we are eating in spirit of the lamb roast with fire.

As Israel journeyed through the wilderness, which speaks of this present evil world, through which Gods people are now passing as strangers and pilgrims, the food that sustained them was the manna from heaven. This manna, as our blessed Lord shows us in John 6, was a type of Himself as the humbled One, who trod the path of faith in this world: our great example of devotion to the Father. He said, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. The bread of God is He that came down from heaven to give His life for the world. As we dwell upon the lowly path of our Saviour through this scene, we are feeding upon the manna.

Note the place where the manna was found. Morning by morning it came from heaven to earth. It was not upon the high trees or on the mountains where the people would have to climb to obtain it; nor was it down in the deep ravines where they would have to descend and search for it. It lay all about them upon the ground, on the dew, which is a type of the Holy Spirit. The manna occupied so low a place that every Israelite, when he stepped out of his tent door in the morning, had to do one of two things: he either had to gather it or trample on it. And this is exactly the place which our Lord Jesus has taken in His infinite love and grace. We may well pause and ask ourselves the question: Are we trampling on His loving-kindness or have we received Him as our blessed, adorable Saviour?

The manna then was food for the wilderness, but when the people crossed over Jordan and entered into their inheritance, which speaks of our place as associated with the risen Christ in heaven, the manna ceased, and they began to feed upon the old corn of the land. Jesus said, long years afterward: Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it shall bear much fruit. Christ Himself was the corn of wheat who fell into the ground in death; now He has come forth in resur- rection: the old corn of the land speaks of Him as the Risen One. Therefore we who have received Him by faith are bidden to set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. As we are occupied with Him in the heavenlies, we will receive new strength to enable us to appropriate and enjoy our present portion as a heavenly people.

The third topic is also of deep interest: The Captain of the Lords Host. Of this we read in verses 13 to 15:

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 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? And the captain of the Lords host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.

Joshua had evidently gone out to reconnoiter. He was looking upon Jericho, doubtless considering what might be the best method of attacking it in order to insure the capture of that walled city; but he was to learn that it was not for him to direct the armies of Israel except as the Lord Himself gave instruction. Suddenly he saw standing before him a man with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua, apparently without fear, immediately went over to him and asked the question: Art thou for us or for our adversaries? The answer was most instructive. This stranger warrior replied, Nay but as captain of the host of Jehovah am I now come. It was the angel of the covenant appearing in human form to take command of the armies of Israel. Joshua was to be subject to his control.

Recognizing immediately the supernatural character of this visitor, Joshua fell, we are told, on his face to the earth and worshiped, inquiring, What saith my Lord unto His servant? The answer was simple, but designed to impress Israels great chieftain with the sanctity of the Being who addressed him, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. Instantly obeying, Joshua remained prostrate before this supernatural Captain. We are not told of anything further that passed between them, but it is evident that Joshua recognized in this theophany the blessed fact that Jehovah Himself had come to lead His people to victory. The Captain of the Lords host is, of course, none other than that Great Captain of our salvation: the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The angel of the covenant of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament, God manifest in flesh. May it be ours ever to yield glad subjection to His guidance and so as we follow Him and obey His Word, we shall be assured of victory over all our foes.

Back to Gilgal

Back to Gilgal, back to Gilgal,

Let me, O my spirit, go!

Where the stones of death lie buried

Neath the mighty Jordans How;

When the manna ceased from falling

On the resurrection day-

Back to where the shame of Egypt

From the host was rolled away.

Back to where the stones of witness

Silent by the river stand;

Where was ate the feast unleavend,

And the old corn of the land;

Where Jehovahs ransomed army

For the Canaan conquest start;

Back to where death and resurrection

Meet the eye and fill the heart.

When, by strength of God, victorious

Thou dost bear the spoil away,

Back unto the camp of Gilgal

Hasten in that joyful day!

If, defeated in the conflict,

Thou dost flee before the foe,

Back to Gilgal, O my spirit-

In thy shame and sorrow go!

Till the land shall all be conquerd,

And the palm thy hand shall bear-

Till the tent is pitched at Shiloh,

And Jehovah worshipped THERE-

Camp at Gilgal, start from Gilgal,

Back to Gilgal ever come!

Anchor by the ford of Jordan

Till all Canaan is thy home.

-William Blane

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Jos 5:13-14

I. There is a lesson here, not inappropriate to the present times, in the fact that Christ appeared to Joshua as a “man of war.” Would that image have been used, would Christ have assumed that form, if all war were out of the question?

II. It is still more important to remark how strikingly the manifestations of Christ accommodate themselves to the various circumstances of His people. To Abraham, a wanderer and sojourner in Canaan, He manifests Himself as a wayfaring man. To Jacob, on the eve of an expected conflict with his brother, Christ shows Himself as a comforter. To Joshua, a soldier and an officer, Christ, too, is a soldier in command.

III. Joshua stood before the heavenly Captain, with the shoes from off his feet, to receive orders about the conducting of the siege. So let it be with us all. As soon as a providence, a word, a will, of God shows the special presence of Deity, let it have supremacy, and every human authority, however high, stand in the posture of silent obedience.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 243.

Consider this narrative-

I. As describing an anticipatory appearance of Christ. In reality Christ was not “a man” before He was born in Bethlehem. It was not the body, but only the appearance, of a man that Joshua saw.

II. This narrative foreshadows a peculiar relation that exists between Christ and His followers. (1) They are the Lord’s host. The Church is a host on account of its numbers, its unity, its order. (2) Of this host Christ is the Captain. He is Captain by sanction of law and by suffrage of the army, and He is Captain throughout all time.

III. See the consequences of this relation. (1) As Captain of the Lord’s host, Christ summons His people to a life of warfare. (2) He requires unquestioning obedience to His authority. (3) He furnishes His soldiers with power for their warfare: the power of His Spirit, His truth, and His love. (4) As Captain of the Lord’s host, Christ leads us to an enterprise that must end in glory to His own name and to each individual who is on His side.

C. Stanford, Symbols of Christ, p. 89.

Notice:-

I. The agitation of uncertainty in the breast of Joshua. Suddenly, while he brooded, a man stood over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand. He saw a vast armed figure towering above him in fighting attitude. He asked with painful suspense, “Art thou for us or for our adversaries?” wondering anxiously what the apparition meant, and what it portended, whether success or defeat in the coming campaign. And it is with like uncertainty that we front now the new year. We most of us know enough of life to discern, if we lift our eyes, a man with a drawn sword in his hand. We ask in vain as Joshua did when he cried, “Art thou for us or for our adversaries?” The angel says to the wistfully inquiring man, “As captain of the host of the Lord I am now come.”

II. Here, then, was what Joshua saw in looking forward to the future. He did not see victory or defeat, but he saw, to his comfort and relief, that the forces which he led were not his host merely, but the host of the Lord, and that they, together with their leader, were in the hands of the Lord.

III. The message that Joshua received was no declaring of things that had been kept hidden, no weighty revealings, only a plain and familiar admonition to cherish within him a right temper of mind, a right spirit, to see to it that he walked reverently and cultivated purity, as one who dwelt in a temple. That was all the heavens told him when they leaned toward him with a word. “Take heed to yourself, to your character and conduct; be dutiful; be loyal to the vision that is yours.” And what better, richer gift could we have from above than a deepened sense of duty and a fresh impulse toward reverent and noble living?

S. A. Tipple, Sunday Mornings at Norwood, p. 215.

References: Jos 5:13-15.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 285; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 795. 5-Parker, vol. v., pp. 126, 136. Jos 6:18.-Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v.,p. 59. Jos 6:20.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 285. Jos 6:26.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 150. 6-Parker, vol. v., p. 147; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 629. Jos 7:3.-Ibid., vol. xxiii., No. 1358. Jos 7:10.-J. B. Heard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 40; S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 3rd series, No. 10:7:13.-Parker, vol. v., p. 276. Jos 7:15.-Ibid., Jos 7:16-26.-Expositor, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 454. Jos 7:18-Parker, vol. v., p. 172. Jos 7:19.-C. J. Vaughan, Liturgy and Worship of the Church of England, p. 53; J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 406. Jos 7:19, Jos 7:20.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Lent to Passiontide, p. 83. Jos 7:20.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 113. Jos 7:20, Jos 7:21.-S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 2nd series, No. 9:7:21.-A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 104. 7-Parker, vol. v., pp. 156, 163. Jos 8:1.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1358. Jos 8:31.-Parker, vol. v., p. 277. 8-Ibid., p. 179. Jos 9:2-27.-Ibid., p. 186. Jos 9:14.-P. Robertson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 226; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 364. Jos 10:11.-Parker, vol. v., p. 195. Jos 10:12-15.-Expositor, 1st series, vol. i., p. 1. Jos 10:12-43.-Parker, vol. v., p. 202. Jos 10:39.-J. B. Mozley, Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, p. 83.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

5. At Gilgal

CHAPTER 5

1. The terrified enemies (Jos 5:1)

2. Circumcision commanded and executed (Jos 5:2-9)

3. The Passover kept (Jos 5:10)

4. The old corn of the land (Jos 5:11-12)

5. The captain of Jehovahs host (Jos 5:13-15)

The events at Gilgal are of much interest. Jehovah had brought His people over Jordan. All His promises were kept. He had promised to deliver them out of Egypt and to bring them into the land of Canaan. All is now accomplished. The wilderness is behind them and they face the marvellous land with its riches and resources, the land flowing with milk and honey. The advance and the conquest is next in order. At the Red Sea their enemies were slain by the power of God, but now, after the power of God had brought them into the land, the real conflict begins.

Gilgal, the new ground gained and occupied by the people brought over Jordan, is the type of the resurrection-ground upon which our feet have been planted. That we are risen with Christ and seated in Him in the heavenly places must be constantly remembered, as Israel could never forget at Gilgal that they had been brought over Jordan into the land. The memorial stones served as a constant reminder.

But before they could advance a number of things took place. First we read of the fear which took hold on the kings of the Canaanites. Their hearts melted. They were the instruments of Satan under whose control they were; their fear denotes Satans fear. He knew the power of Jehovah, which had brought them into the land. The enemy is defeated by the death and resurrection of our Lord. Through death He has annulled him, who has the power of death, that is the devil. Being in Christ, risen with Christ and seated in Him in the heavenly places, we can look upon the enemy as conquered. Yet it is only in the Lord and in the power of His might that we are strong. Apart from Him we become the easy prey of our enemy. What an encouragement to Israel it must have been, when they learned, as no doubt they did, that the mighty enemies, who had inspired such terror to their fathers over thirty-eight years ago, were now trembling. Israels fear was gone, because Gods power was on their side. What confidence we should have when we remember that we are translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love! Victory is on our side. All we need to do is to put on the whole armour of God, to resist the devil and he will flee from us.

Circumcision is next commanded by Jehovah. At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. This command was carried out at once and the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. Therefore the place was called Gilgal, which means rolling. The circumcision was carried out on all the males, who were born in the wilderness (verses 5 and 7). The rite of such deep meaning had been neglected. No doubt they had plenty of excuses for that during the wilderness journey. No command was given to circumcise during the thirty-eight years wandering. It was suspended; it may have been a punishment for their unbelief But now all is changed. They are in the land. The Passover, the great memorial feast, was about to be kept. The uncircumcised could not eat the Passover. The reproach of Egypt, for as uncircumcised they were the same as in bondage in Egypt, in no covenant with Jehovah, is rolled away. The visible token of belonging to Jehovah was now borne by every male in the camp.

Joshua exhibited the courage of faith in circumcising the thousands of Israelites at that time. His action has been called most unmilitary. He put the vast majority of his fighting men into an unfit condition. What if these Canaanites should have fallen upon the settlers in their territory? May Joshua not have remembered the dastardly crime of the sons of Jacob? See Gen 34:24-26. He knew no fear, his first concern was to yield obedience to God. They tarried for several weeks at Gilgal.

What are the typical lessons of all this? Circumcision stands for the carrying out of the sentence of death to the flesh. The death of Christ is for His people a circumcision. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ (Col 2:11). But this fact that we are dead to sin by the circumcision, the death of Christ must be carried out practically. The sharp knife has to be applied to the flesh and the things of the flesh. The members, which are on earth, must be mortified, which means, put into the place of death, where the death of Christ has put them. If it is not done the reproach of Egypt will rest upon His people and they are unfit to enjoy their heavenly possession, and unable to advance in the things of Christ.

Gilgal, therefore, stands for the judgment of self. This is the place of our strength and power. Israel had always to return to Gilgal; when they did not they were defeated. Defeat, failure in our walk, always drives us back to self-judgment and humiliation. Victory and blessing may keep us from it; and that is our real spiritual danger.

Passover is kept next. See Numbers 9 and our annotations there. What blessed memories must have come to them? They remembered that fearful night in Egypt and how Jehovah had passed over them, when He saw the blood of the lamb. Notice the difference between these two Passovers. The first they kept as guilty; they needed protection. But now they keep it as delivered and brought into the land. And we have a feast of remembrance likewise, the Lords table. Do this in remembrance of Me. It must be kept by us on resurrection-ground, realizing that we are dead with Christ and risen with Him; self-judgment is needed as well.

The remembrance of the past is often an excellent preparation for the trials of the future, and as often it proves a remarkable support under them. It was the very nature of the Passover to look back to the past, and to recall Gods first great interposition on behalf of His people. It was a precious encouragement both to faith and hope. So also is our Christian Passover. It is a connecting link between the first and second comings of our Lord. The first coming lends support to faith, the second to hope. No exercise of soul can be more profitable than to go back to that memorable day when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. For then the price of redemption was paid in full, and the door of salvation flung wide open. Then the Son sealed His love by giving Himself for us. What blessing, whether for this life or the life to come, was not purchased by that transaction? Life may be dark and stormy, but hope foresees a bright tomorrow. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory (Professor W.G. Blaikie).

Then the manna ceased and they ate the old corn of the land. Both foods are typical of Christ, the food God has given to His people. The manna is the type of Christ, on earth, in humiliation. The old corn is Christ in Glory. May we constantly feed on both.

Then Joshua meets before Jericho the man with the drawn sword. What a courageous man Joshua was! He meets the stranger alone. Most likely he had no sword, while the man had his sword drawn. He soon hears who the stranger is. It is the same One who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, to Abraham at Mamre, to Jacob at Peniel and to others afterward. It is Jehovah in visible form. These theophanies were surely not incarnations, yet they foreshadowed the incarnation of the Son of God. Here Jehovah who in the fulness of time became Man, appears as a man of war, as Captain of the host of the Lord. The host are Israel. And He is the Captain of our salvation.

The book of Joshua is the book of conflicts and conquests. The sword is freely used in carrying out the divine judgments upon the ungodly tenants of the land. Yet the first drawn sword, mentioned in the book, is in the hand of the Lord as He appeared unto Joshua. He fights for His people. He will yet execute the righteous judgments in the earth, It will be when He appears the second time.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

all the kings: Jos 12:9-24, Jos 24:15, Gen 10:15-19, Gen 15:18-21, Gen 48:22, Jdg 11:23, 2Sa 21:2, Eze 16:3, Amo 2:9

Canaanites: Jos 17:12, Jos 17:18, Gen 12:6, Exo 23:28, Jdg 1:1, Jdg 4:2, Ezr 9:1, Psa 135:11

which were by: Num 13:29, Jdg 3:3, Zep 2:4-6

heard: Jos 2:9-11, Exo 15:14, Exo 15:15, Psa 48:4-6, Rev 18:10

neither was: 1Sa 25:37, 1Ki 10:5, Isa 13:6-8, Eze 21:7, Dan 5:6

Reciprocal: Gen 35:5 – General Lev 26:36 – I will send Num 14:14 – they have Deu 11:25 – There shall Deu 28:10 – and they shall Jos 2:11 – our hearts Jos 2:24 – faint Jos 7:5 – wherefore Jos 9:1 – on this Jdg 7:14 – into his hand 2Ch 14:14 – the fear 2Ch 20:29 – the fear Neh 6:16 – for they perceived Psa 76:12 – He shall Isa 41:5 – the ends

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Five events of interest are recorded in Jos 5:1-15 . First, we learn that the kings of the Canaanites by the sea lost heart when they learned how the Lord had caused Israel to pass through Jordan on dry ground (5:1.). Second, the Lord required the Israelites to renew the covenant with him by circumcising all the males (5:2-9). Third, Israel kept its first Passover in the promised land (5:10-11). Fourth, God ceased providing the manna when the people had eaten of the fruits of the new land (5:12). Fifth, Joshua had a meeting with the captain of the Lord’s host (5:13-15). This must have been the pre-incarnate Christ since he accepted worship from Joshua and instructed him to remove his shoes because he was on holy ground. He appeared with his sword drawn because he was ready to fight against the wicked Canaanites.

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Jos 5:1. Amorites These and the Canaanites are mentioned for all the rest, as being the chief of them for number, and power, and courage. On the side of Jordan westward This is added to distinguish them from the other Amorites, eastward from Jordan, whom Moses had subdued. Which were by the sea The midland sea, all along the coast of it, which was the chief seat of that people, though divers colonies of them were come into and settled in other places. That the Lord had dried up Jordan Which was their bulwark on the east side, where the Israelites were; for it is very probable they had taken away all bridges near those parts; and the Israelites having been so long in that neighbouring country, and yet not making any attempt upon them, they were grown secure; especially now, when Jordan swelled beyond its ordinary bounds; and therefore they did not endeavour to hinder their passage. Their heart melted They lost all their courage, and durst attempt nothing upon the Israelites. This did not happen without Gods special providence, that the Israelites might quietly participate of the two great sacraments of their church, circumcision and the passover, and thereby be prepared for their high and hard work, and for the possession of the holy and promised land; which would have been defiled by an uncircumcised people.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jos 5:1. The Amorites on the side of Jordan westward. This agrees with Num 13:29. The Amorites dwell in the mountains.

Jos 5:2. Make thee sharp knives. Whet them, if of steel; but often they struck off flints, whose edges are very sharp. Infants were healed in three days, but great soreness followed with men; they could not walk, as in Jos 5:8. The place was afterwards called Gilgal; that is, rolling away of reproach. See more on Gen 17:12.

Jos 5:12. The manna ceased. They found old corn, and a barley harvest just ripe. Whenever ordinary means will do, they are preferred to the extraordinary.

Jos 5:13. Behold there stood a man. Michael, say the Jews, and others after them. Dan 10:13. But the putting off of Joshuas shoes demonstrates the presence of Him who appeared to Moses. Exo 3:5. Homer represents Juno as appearing in this form. This vision was opportunely given, when Joshua was awed by the walls and towers of Jericho. Joshua worshipped him, as the Christ whom Moses had seen at the bush.

Jos 5:15. Loose thy shoe from off thy foot. The patriarchs approached the altars of God, and the priests officiated in the temple, barefoot, because the divine presence hallowed the place.

REFLECTIONS.

When the spies had returned to Kadesh forty years before, they made Israel faint with fear concerning the number and strength of the seven nations. Now, in turn, those nations faint because of the glory and strength of Israels God. The fears of Israel had arisen solely from their unbelief; but the fears of those nations were founded on conscious guilt, and on the uplifted arm of Gods avenging power. In the Canaanites we see the situation of all wicked men when their day is come; and in the Israelites, from the ease with which they conquered, we see that all our spiritual enemies are in reality but as mountains of vapour and smoke. When we set the Lord before us we have almost conquered ere we begin the fight. A sight of his glory changes all the charms of sin into the horrors of corruption. Before Joshua entered on the conquest the males born in the desert must be circumcised, for that ritual, the seal of their covenant, had been neglected, because they knew not when the cloud would rise. And being now not very far from Shechem, they could not forget the sin of Simeon and Levi, who treacherously smote the city, in like circumstances, while the men were sore. What a mercy that God did not retaliate, and that the sin was pardoned after repentance and perpetual abhorrence. Worldly prudence would blame Joshua for circumcising his army in a hostile land; but God had promised to defend the people during the festivals, as he really did at Mizpeh; and believing the Lords promise, safety surrounded them on every side. When was man a sufferer, putting the whole of life together, by serving the Lord?

The people must next proceed to renew their covenant, as Moses had commanded, Deuteronomy 27.; and to celebrate the passover before they dared to assault the enemy. The man who expects the divine blessing to crown his works must go forth in full covenant with God. The duties and the promises of religion are everywhere connected, and he who neglects the former cannot claim the latter.

We have before noticed, that the pillary cloud is not mentioned when the people were directed to follow the ark: in like manner the manna also ceased, when the people began to eat of the old corn of the land. We may therefore assuredly gather, that the Lord will never leave nor forsake his people while travelling in the desert land. He will feed them in all his ordinances, and guide them by his light of truth and grace. We may also infer, that we should be diligent in the use of means, as Israel was in gathering their daily food to the end of their journey: and in all things be obedient to his will.

The Lord having repeatedly encouraged Joshua by oracles from the mercyseat, as is understood, next proceeds to favour him, as he had done the holy patriarchs, with a sanctifying discovery of his angelic presence; for holy men were gradually exalted in the scale of revelations. He saw a most magnificent personage right before him, in all the terror of military array. He approached with conscious awe; and, on knowing who he was, he prostrated and adored his fathers God. Christ is still the captain of his militant host. He walketh in the midst of the churches, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword with two edges. Let us therefore dismiss our fears. If God be for us, who can be against us?

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jos 5:2-9. Joshua Circumcises the Israelites.Here we have an interesting but quite unhistorical account of the institution of circumcision. Circumcision (pp. 83, 99f.) is a prehistoric rite practised by many nations in antiquity and by the South Sea Islanders, African, and Australian aborigines in the present day. Here we have an attempt to date its origin in Israel from the entry into Palestine, while in Genesis 17* (P) its origin is dated from the command given by God to Abraham. The endeavours of subsequent scribes to bring the two accounts into conformity with one another are seen in the insertion of Jos 5:3-8. The original narrative is probably to be found in Jos 5:2 and Jos 5:9. Joshua is ordered to circumcise the nation by Yahweh, who says, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. The only meaning to be attached to these words is that the Egyptians had reproached the Israelites with being uncircumcised, just as the Israelites themselves subsequently reproached the Philistines. Later writers however, especially in the face of Genesis 17, could not admit that the Israelites were uncircumcised in Egypt; Jos 5:3-8 was accordingly added, stating that the Israelites who were circumcised at Gilgal were those who had been born in the wilderness, and for some unexplained reason had never undergone the rite, though this, of course, leaves the words, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you, quite without meaning. That the original account gave offence to later editors is also seen from the interesting fact that the stone knives here mentioned are again found in LXX Jos 21:42 and Jos 24:30, where they are said to have been preserved at Timnathserah. These passages, no doubt, belong to the old tradition that circumcision was instituted by Joshua at Gilgal, but as being in conflict with the priestly account in Genesis 17 were omitted from the Hebrew text.

Jos 5:2 f. knives of flint: this, like the parallel case of Zipporahs circumcision of her son with a flint (Exo 4:25), is an example of what is known as the conservatism of the religious instinct. The rite dated back beyond the period when metal knives were in use. A Central Australian tradition (Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 223f., 394402) carries us back beyond even stone knives to the use of the fire-stick for circumcision, but stone knives are said to have been introduced because so many of the boys died under the operation (pp. 224, 401f.). Any deviation from traditional routine is felt to be dangerous in religious ceremonies, and just as the fire-stick was employed after flint knives were known, so the latter relic of the Stone Age continued to be used after metal knives had been introduced. See Jos 8:31*.A. S. P.]

Jos 5:10-12, which records the eating of the first passover in the Promised Land, belongs to the Priestly writer. The editor took care to put the account of the circumcision before that of the Passover, for, according to Exo 12:48, no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

CIRCUMCISION IN GILGAL

(vs.1-9)

The miraculous crossing of the Jordan awakened great fear in the hearts of the Canaanitish people, so that their hearts melted (v.1). This was God’s work. It was He who was preparing the way for Israel’s victorious conquest of the land of promise.

Military strategy would have dictated that Israel should immediately strike then while the advantage was on their side. But the Lord did not allow this. He knew that Israel needed preparation of a different sort than men would advise. For if we are going to judge others on God’s behalf, we must first learn to judge ourselves. Israel had been a circumcised nation when coming out of Egypt, but the younger generation had not been circumcised (v.5). The spiritual meaning of circumcision is told us in Php 3:3 : “We are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” The cutting off of the flesh is imperative if we are to engage in any warfare for God: we must learn to judge the sin of our own hearts or we cannot judge sin in others.

Joshua was required to make flint knives by which the men of Israel were to be circumcised (vs.3-4). This was totally contrary to military strategy, for it would leave them naturally greatly weakened in case the enemy attacked. But God was able to keep the enemy in check, and His word is most vital if any results for Him are to be obtained.

Verse 6 reminds us that Israel was kept for forty years in the wilderness because they disobeyed the Lord’s instructions to enter Canaan (v.6), so that that generation of men had died and their sons now were circumcised. They remained in the camp till they were healed (v.8), which required three days. The Lord’s words at this time are instructive, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you” (v.9). Gilgal means “rolling away” Egypt is typical of the world, which has kept believers in bondage, but the bondage was broken by the death of Christ, pictured in the Red Sea. Yet, to enter into the truth of this practically requires the application of the death sentence to ourselves personally. When this death sentence is made vital to the individual (as symbolized in circumcision), he realizes that he is, not only in principle, but in practice, dead to the world. The reproach of Egypt is thus rolled away, for it is final, definite separation from all that is of Egypt (the world).

Circumcision depicts the negative side of the truth, that is, saying “No” to the flesh, and in the New Testament baptism answers to circumcision, for baptism also speaks of virtually putting the flesh in the place of death, or of burial. We shall see as we go on in Joshua that the positive side is presented to us, where all blessing is centered in Christ.

THE PASSOVER KEPT

(vs.10-12)

While we have seen that circumcision deals with what is negative, the judgment of sin in our own flesh, now the keeping of the Passover is intended to direct our eyes to the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, the positive Object set before our eyes. It was four days after crossing the Jordan that Israel kept the Passover. We read of their keeping the Passover only once in the wilderness, the second year after leaving Egypt (Num 9:1-5). Of course, those who were not circumcised were not permitted to keep the Passover (Exo 12:48). But now that circumcision had taken place, the truth of the Passover is revived (v.10). Only when the flesh is put in its place of death will we give to the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice the place of honor that belongs to Him.

Neither the circumcising of the men of Israel nor keeping the Passover would appeal to the minds of common soldiers as being of help in warfare, but for believers it is imperative that they first take their own proper place and give Christ His proper place before they can hope for victory.

Besides this, the day following the Passover they ate of the produce of the land of Canaan, unleavened bread and parched grain (v.11). They had previously eaten manna all through the wilderness, but the day after eating of the land’s produce the manna ceased. The manna was intended to humble Israel, for it is wilderness food, typical of Christ in the lowly humiliation of His Manhood, but the produce of the land speaks of Christ in His exaltation, raised and glorified, so that this is exalting food. The believer is privileged today to eat both of these, for as regards his circumstances he is in the wilderness, but as regards his spiritual position he is in the heavenlies.

THE SUPREME COMMANDER

(vs.13-15)

There has been an orderly progression in the preparations made for warfare, now only one matter remains, and that of greatest importance. As Joshua was by Jericho, evidently contemplating an attack, he saw a Man standing before him holding a drawn sword. Joshua was no weakling: he went to the Man and asked Him on which side He was (v.13).

The answer was “No.” He neither came to support Joshua nor to support the enemy, but for a far higher purpose. He came as Commander of the army of the Lord. This could be no other than the Lord Himself, and Joshua fully gives Him this place. He worshiped Him and asked what He had to tell Joshua (v.14). The only instruction he was given was to take the sandal off his foot because the place he stood was holy ground. Thus, Joshua would be reminded of Moses and the burning bush (Exo 3:5).

Joshua surely would never forget this. God intended to impress on him that he was only a secondary leader and all Israel must realize their total dependence on the grace and power of the eternal God.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

5:1 And it came to pass, when all the kings of the {a} Amorites, which [were] on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which [were] by the sea, heard 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.

(a) The Amorites were on both sides of Jordan, of which two kings were slain already on the side toward Moab.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

2. Circumcision and celebration of the Passover 5:1-12

"This [fifth] chapter records four experiences which God brought to Joshua and the people, each one centered about a token, or symbol . . . The Token of Circumcision: Restoration to covenant favor (Jos 5:2-9) . . . The Token of Blood: Anticipation of deliverance (Jos 5:10) . . . The Token of Fruit: Appropriation of the blessing (Jos 5:11-12) . . . The Token of a Sword: Revelation of a holy war (Jos 5:13-15)." [Note: Jensen, pp. 49-51.]

God had guaranteed Joshua’s success only as he kept the Mosaic Law (Jos 1:7). It was necessary therefore that all the males who had been born in the wilderness and had not undergone circumcision should do so. Circumcision brought the individual male under the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 17). It was also a prerequisite for partaking in the Passover that God required of all Israelites yearly (Exodus 12). Like the stones just set up, circumcision was also a memorial.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

This verse at first might seem more appropriate as a conclusion to the previous chapter. However it explains how the Israelites were able to take several days to perform an operation that rendered them very vulnerable to their enemies militarily. Israel’s foes feared them greatly as a result of the miracle of the Jordan crossing, and they did not attack.

This reference to the Amorites and Canaanites groups all the native tribes together. The people who possessed the South and the mountains of the land were mainly Amorites. Many of them had lived in Transjordan and were the mightiest of the warriors among the tribes. Those who lived in the North, in the lowlands by the Mediterranean Sea, and in the Valley of Jezreel, were mainly Canaanites. The Canaanites were traders rather than warriors. The writer sometimes put all the native people in one or the other of these two groups. This depended on the area in which they lived (South or North, highlands or lowlands) or the general characteristic of the people that occupied most of that area (warlike or peaceful). Reference to the Amorites and Canaanites is probably a merism, a figure of speech in which two extremes represent the whole (e.g., "heaven and earth" means the universe).

"From the human standpoint, if ever there was a time to strike at the Canaanites it was right after the Israelites had gained entrance to the land. Fear had taken hold on the inhabitants of Palestine. But divine plans are not made according to human strategy." [Note: Carl Armerding, Conquest and Victory, p. 62.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER X.

CIRCUMCISION AND PASSOVER- MANNA AND CORN.

Jos 5:1-12.

THE first two facts recorded in this chapter seem to be closely connected with each other. One is, that when all the Amorite and Canaanite kings on the west side of the Jordan heard of the miraculous drying up of the waters and the passage of the Israelites, “their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more.” The other is, that the opportunity was taken then and there to circumcise the whole of the generation that had been born after leaving Egypt. But for the fact recorded in the first verse, it would have been the most unsuitable time that could be conceived for administering circumcision. The whole male population would have been rendered helpless for the time, and an invitation would have been given to the men of Jericho to commit such a massacre as in the like circumstances the sons of Jacob inflicted on the men of Shechem (Gen 34:25). Why was not this business of circumcising performed while the host were lying inactive on the other side, and while the Jordan ran between Israel and his foes? It was because the kings of the Canaanites were petrified. It is true they plucked up courage by-and-by, and many of the kings entered into a league against Joshua. But this was after the affair of Ai, after the defeat of the Israelites before that city had showed that, as in the case of Achilles, there was a vulnerable spot somewhere, notwithstanding the protection of their God. Meanwhile the people of Jericho were paralysed, for though the whole male population of Israel under forty lay helpless in their tents, not a finger was raised by the enemy against them.

It is with no little surprise that we read that circumcision had been suspended during the long period of the wilderness sojourn. Why was this? Some have said that, owing to the circumstances in which the people were, it would not have been convenient, perhaps hardly possible, to administer the rite on the eighth day. Moving as they were from place to place, the administration of circumcision would often have caused so much pain and peril to the child, that it is no wonder it was delayed. And once delayed, it was delayed indefinitely. But this explanation is not sufficient. There were long, very long periods of rest, during which there could have been no difficulty. A better explanation, brought forward by Calvin, leads us to connect the suspension of circumcision with the punishment of the Israelites, and with the sentence that doomed them to wander forty years in the wilderness. When the worship of the golden calf took place, the nation was rejected, and the breaking by Moses of the two tables of stone seemed an appropriate sequel to the rupture of the covenant which their idolatry had caused. And though they were soon restored, they were not restored without certain drawbacks, – tokens of the Divine displeasure. Afterwards, at the great outburst of unbelief in connection with the report of the spies, the adult generation that had come out of Egypt were doomed to perish in the wilderness, and with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, not one of them was permitted to enter the land of promise. Now, though it is not expressly stated, it seems probable that the suspension of circumcision was included in the punishment of their sins. They were not to be allowed to place on their children the sign and seal of a covenant which in spirit and in reality they had broken.

But it was not an abolition, but only a suspension of the sacrament for a time that took place. The time might come when it would be restored. The natural time for this would be the end of the forty years of chastisement. These forty years had now come to an end. Doubtless it would have been a great joy to Moses if it had been given him to see the restoration of circumcision, but that was not to take place until the people had set foot on Abraham’s land. Now they have crossed the river. They have entered on the very land which God sware to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to give it them. And the very first thing that is done after this is to give back to them the holy sign of the covenant, which was now administered to every man in the congregation who had not previously received it. We may well think of it as an occasion of great rejoicing. The visible token of his being one of God’s children was now borne by every man and boy in the camp. In a sense they now served themselves heirs to the covenant made with their fathers, and might thus rest with firmer trust on the promise – ”I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.”

Two other points in connection with this transaction demand a word of explanation. The first is the statement that ”all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised” (Jos 5:5). If the view be correct that the suspension of circumcision was part of the punishment for their sins, the prohibition would not come into operation for some months, at all events, after the exodus from Egypt. We think, with Calvin, that for the sake of brevity the sacred historian makes a general statement without waiting to explain the exceptions to which it was subject. The other point needing explanation is the Lord’s statement after the circumcision – “This day have I rolled the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal (i.e., Rolling) unto this day.” How could the suspension of circumcision be called the reproach of Egypt? The words imply that, owing to the want of this sacrament, they had lain exposed to a reproach from the Egyptians, which was now rolled away. The brevity of the statement, and our ignorance of what the Egyptians were saying of the Israelites at the time, make the words difficult to understand. What seems most likely is, that when the Egyptians heard how God had all but repudiated them in the wilderness, and had withdrawn from them the sign of His covenant, they malignantly crowed over them, and denounced them as a worthless race, who had first rejected their lawful rulers in Egypt under pretext of religion, and, having shown their hypocrisy, were now scorned and cast off by the very God whom they had professed themselves so eager to serve. We may be sure that the Egyptians would not be slow to seize any pretext for denouncing the Israelites, and would be sure to make their jibes as sharp and as bitter as they could. But now the tables are turned on the Egyptians. The restoration of circumcision stamps this people once more as the people of God. The stupendous miracle just wrought in the dividing of the Jordan indicates the kind of protection which their God and King is sure to extend to them. The name of Gilgal will be a perpetual testimony that the reproach of Egypt is rolled away.

Circumcision being now duly performed, the way was prepared for another holy rite for which the appointed season had arrived – the Passover. Some have supposed that the Passover as well as circumcision was suspended after the sentence of the forty years’ wandering, the more especially that it was expressly enacted that no uncircumcised person was to eat the Passover. We know (Num 9:5) that the Passover was kept the second year after they left Egypt, but no other reference to it occurs in the history. On this, as on many other points connected with the wilderness history, we must be content to remain in ignorance. We are not even very sure how far the ordinary sacrifices were offered during that period. It is quite possible that the considerations that suspended the rite of circumcision applied to other ordinances. But whether or not the Passover was observed in the wilderness, we may easily understand that after being circumcised the people would observe it with a much happier and more satisfied feeling. There were many things to make this Passover memorable. The crossing of the Jordan was so like the crossing of the Red Sea that the celebration in Egypt could not fail to come back vividly to all the older people, – those that were under twenty at the exodus, to whom the sentence of exclusion from Canaan did not apply (Num 14:29). Many of these must have looked on while their fathers sprinkled the lintels and door posts with the blood of the lamb, and must have listened to the awful death-cry of the firstborn of the Egyptians. They must have remembered well that memorable midnight when all were in such excitement marching away from Egypt; and not less vividly must they have remembered the terror that seized them when the Egyptian host was seen in pursuit; and then again the thrill of triumph with which they passed between the crystal walls, under the glow of the fiery pillar; and once more the triumphant notes of Miriam’s timbrel and the voices of the women, “Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He hath cast into the sea.” And now these days of glory were coming back! As surely as the passage of the sea had been followed by the destruction of the Egyptians, so surely would the passage of the Jordan be followed by the destruction of the Canaanites. Glorious things were spoken of the city of their God. The benediction of Moses was about to receive a new fulfilment – ”Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.”

The remembrance of the past is often an excellent preparation for the trials of the future, and as often it proves a remarkable support under them. It was the very nature of the Passover to look back to the past, and to recall God’s, first great interposition on behalf of His people. It was a precious encouragement both to faith and hope. So also is our Christian Passover. It is a connecting link between the first and second comings of our Lord. The first coming lends support to faith, the second to hope. No exercise of soul can be more profitable than to go back to that memorable day when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. For then the price of redemption was paid in full, and the door of salvation flung wide open. Then the Son sealed His love by giving Himself to the cross for us. What blessing, whether for this life or the life to come, was not purchased by that transaction? Life may be dark and stormy, but hope foresees a bright tomorrow. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.”

Yet another incident is connected with this transition period of the history. ”They did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn 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.” It is not necessary to suppose that they did not partake at all of the fruits of the land till the morning after that Passover. The conquest of Sihon and Og must have put a large share of produce in their hands, and we can hardly suppose that they did not make some use of it. The narrative is so brief that it does not undertake to state every modification that may be applicable to its general statements. The main thing to be noticed is, that while the manna continued to descend, it was the staple article of food; but when the manna was withdrawn, the old corn and other fruits of the country took its place. In other words, the miracle was not continued when it ceased to be necessary. The manna had been a provision for the wilderness, where ordinary food in sufficient quantity could not be obtained; but now that they were in a land of fields and orchards and vineyards the manna was withdrawn.

We have already adverted to the Bible law of the supernatural. No sanction is given to the idea of a lavish and needless expenditure of supernatural power. A law of economy, we might almost say parsimony, prevails, side by side with the exercise of unbounded liberality. Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes to feed the multitude, but He will not let one fragment be lost that remains after the feast. A similar law guides the economy of prayer. We have no right to ask that mercies may come to us through extraordinary channels, when it is in our power to get them by ordinary means. If it is in our power to procure bread by our labour, we dare not ask it to be sent direct. We are only too prone to make prayer at the eleventh hour an excuse for want of diligence or want of courage in what bears on the prosperity of the spiritual life. It may be that of His great generosity God sometimes blesses us, even though we have made a very inadequate use of the ordinary means. But on that we have no right to presume. We are fond of short and easy methods where the natural method would be long and laborious. But here certainly we find the working of natural law in the spiritual world. We cannot look for God’s blessing without diligent use of God’s appointed means. More generally, this occurrence in the history of Israel, the cessation of one provision when another comes into operation, exemplifies a great law in providence by which the loss of one kind of advantage is compensated by the advent of another. In childhood and early youth we depend for our growth in knowledge on the instructions of our teachers. What puzzles us we refer to them, and they guide us through the difficulty. If they are wise teachers they will not tell us everything, but they will put us on the right method to find out. Still they are there as a court of appeal, so to speak, and we have always the satisfaction of a last resort. But the time comes when we bid farewell to teachers. Happily it is the time when the judgment becomes self-reliant, independent, penetrating. We are thrown mainly upon our own resources. And the very fact of our having to depend on our own judgment fosters and promotes independence, and fits us better for the responsibilities of life. When we become men we put away childish things. A habit of leaning on others keeps us children; but grappling with difficulties as we find them, and trying to make our way through them and over them, promotes manliness. The manna ceases, and we eat the fruit of the land.

So in family life. The affection that binds parents and children, brothers and sisters to one another in the family is both beautiful and delightful; and it were no wonder if, on the part of some, there were the desire that their intercourse should suffer no rude break, but go on unchanged for an indefinite time. But it is seldom God’s will that family life shall remain unbroken. Often the interruption comes in the rudest and most terrible form – by the death of the head of the house. And the circumstances of the family may require that all who are capable of earning anything shall turn out to increase the family store. It is often a painful and distressing change. But at least it wakens up all who can do anything, it rescues them from the temptation of a slumbering, aimless life, and often draws out useful gifts that turn their lives into a real blessing. And there are other compensations. When Sarah died, Isaac was left with an empty heart; but when Rebecca came to him, he was comforted. The precise blank that death leaves may never be wholly filled, but the heart expands in other directions, and with new objects of affection the gnawing void ceases to be acutely felt. As old attachments are snapped, new are gradually formed. And even in old age a law of compensation often comes in; children and children’s children bring new interests and pleasures, and the green hues of youth modify the grey of age.

Then there is the happy experience by which the advent of spiritual blessings compensates the loss of temporal. Nothing at first appears more desolate than loss of fortune, loss of health, or loss of some principal bodily sense – like sight or hearing. But in a Milton intellectual vigour, patriotic ardour, and poetic sensibility attain their noblest elevation, though

“Cloud and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and, for the book of knowledge fair. Presented with a universal blank Of nature’s works, to me expunged and rased, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.”

It is the total loss of hearing, the result of a sudden accident, that turns the slater, John Kitto, into a most instructive and interesting Oriental scholar and writer. How often temporal loss has proved in a higher sense spiritual gain, all Christian biography testifies. Such instances are not uncommon as that which the Rev. Charles Simeon gives, in speaking of some blind men from Edinburgh whom nearly a century ago he found at work in a country house in Scotland: “One of the blind men, on being interrogated with respect to his knowledge of spiritual things, answered, ‘I never saw till I was blind; nor did I ever know contentment while I had my eyesight, as I do now that I have lost it; I can truly affirm, though few know how to credit me, that I would on no account change my present situation and circumstances with any that I ever enjoyed before I was blind.’ He had enjoyed eyesight till twenty-five, and had been blind now about three years.”

“Life of Rev. Charles Simeon,” p. 125.

Lastly, of all exchanges in room of old provisions the most striking is that which our Lord thus set forth: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” If we should think of life, even the Christian life, as a mere time of enjoyment, albeit spiritual enjoyment, no statement could be more paradoxical or unpalatable. It is because life is a training school, and because what we most need in that school is the immediate action of the Divine Spirit on our spirits, purifying, elevating, strengthening, guiding all that is deepest in our nature, that our Lord’s words are true. Very precious had been the manna that ceased when Jesus left. But more nourishing is the new corn with which the Spirit feeds us. Let us prize it greatly so long as we are in the flesh. We shall know the good of it when we enter on the next stage of our being. Then, in the fullest sense, the manna will cease, and we shall eat the corn of the land.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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