Joshua 4:19-5:12

Living Bible

¹⁹ This miracle occurred on the 25th of March.^[a] That day the entire nation crossed the Jordan River and camped in Gilgal at the eastern edge of the city of Jericho; ²⁰ and there the twelve stones from the Jordan were piled up as a monument.

²¹ Then Joshua explained again the purpose of the stones: “In the future,” he said, “when your children ask you why these stones are here and what they mean, ²² you are to tell them that these stones are a reminder of this amazing miracle—that the nation of Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground! ²³ Tell them how the Lord our God dried up the river right before our eyes and then kept it dry until we were all across! It is the same thing the Lord did forty years ago^[b] at the Red Sea! ²⁴ He did this so that all the nations of the earth will realize that Jehovah is the mighty God, and so that all of you will worship him forever.”

5 When the nations west of the Jordan River—the Amorites and Canaanites who lived along the Mediterranean coast—heard that the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, their courage melted away completely and they were paralyzed with fear.

^2-3 The Lord then told Joshua to set aside a day to circumcise the entire male population of Israel. (It was the second time in Israel’s history that this was done.) The Lord instructed them to manufacture flint knives for this purpose. The place where the circumcision rite took place was named “The Hill of the Foreskins.” ^4-5 The reason for this second circumcision ceremony was that although when Israel left Egypt all of the men who had been old enough to bear arms had been circumcised, that entire generation had died during the years in the wilderness, and none of the boys born since that time had been circumcised. ⁶ For the nation of Israel had traveled back and forth across the wilderness for forty years until all the men who had been old enough to bear arms when they left Egypt were dead; they had not obeyed the Lord, and he vowed that he wouldn’t let them enter the land he had promised to Israel—a land that “flowed with milk and honey.” ⁷ So now Joshua circumcised their children—the men who had grown up to take their fathers’ places.

^8-9 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have ended your shame of not being circumcised.”^[c] So the place where this was done was called Gilgal (meaning, “to end”), and is still called that today. After the ceremony the entire nation rested in camp until the raw flesh of their wounds had been healed.

¹⁰ While they were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover during the evening of April first.^{[d] 11-12} The next day they began to eat from the gardens and grain fields which they invaded, and they made unleavened bread. The following day no manna fell, and it was never seen again! So from that time on they lived on the crops of Canaan.