Joshua 5
New Century Version
5 All the kings of the Amorites west of the Jordan and the Canaanite kings living by the Mediterranean Sea heard that the Lord dried up the Jordan River until the Israelites had crossed it. After that they were scared and too afraid to face the Israelites.
The Israelites Are Circumcised
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make knives from flint stones and circumcise the Israelites.” 3 So Joshua made knives from flint stones and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.
4 This is why Joshua circumcised the men: After the Israelites left Egypt, all the men old enough to serve in the army died in the desert on the way out of Egypt. 5 The men who had come out of Egypt had been circumcised, but none of those who were born in the desert on the trip from Egypt had been circumcised. 6 The Israelites had moved about in the desert for forty years. During that time all the fighting men who had left Egypt had died because they had not obeyed the Lord. So the Lord swore they would not see the land he had promised their ancestors to give them, a fertile land. 7 Their sons took their places. But none of the sons born on the trip from Egypt had been circumcised, so Joshua circumcised them. 8 After all the Israelites had been circumcised, they stayed in camp until they were healed.
9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “As slaves in Egypt you were ashamed, but today I have removed that shame.” So Joshua named that place Gilgal, which it is still named today.
10 The people of Israel were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho. It was there, on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, they celebrated the Passover Feast. 11 The day after the Passover, the people ate food grown on that land: bread made without yeast and roasted grain. 12 The day they ate this food, the manna stopped coming. The Israelites no longer got the manna from heaven. They ate the food grown in the land of Canaan that year.
13 Joshua was near Jericho when he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and asked, “Are you a friend or an enemy?”
14 The man answered, “I am neither. I have come as the commander of the Lord’s army.”
Then Joshua bowed facedown on the ground and asked, “Does my master have a command for me, his servant?”
15 The commander of the Lord’s army answered, “Take off your sandals, because the place where you are standing is holy.” So Joshua did.
Joshua 5
Contemporary English Version
5 The Amorite kings west of the Jordan River and the Canaanite kings along the Mediterranean Sea lost their courage and their will to fight, when they heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan River to let Israel go across.
Israel Gets Ready To Celebrate Passover
2 While Israel was camped at Gilgal, the Lord said, “Joshua, make some flint knives[a] and circumcise the rest of the Israelite men and boys.”[b]
3 Joshua made the knives, then circumcised those men and boys at Haaraloth Hill.[c] 4-7 (A) This had to be done, because none of Israel's baby boys had been circumcised during the 40 years that Israel had wandered through the desert after leaving Egypt.
And why had they wandered for 40 years? It was because right after they left Egypt, the men in the army had disobeyed the Lord. And the Lord had said, “None of you men will ever live to see the land that I promised Israel. It is a land rich with milk and honey, and someday your children will live there, but not before you die here in the desert.”
8 Everyone who had been circumcised needed time to heal, and they stayed in camp.
9 The Lord told Joshua, “It was a disgrace for my people to be slaves in Egypt, but now I have taken away that disgrace.” So the Israelites named the place Gilgal,[d] and it still has that name.
10 (B) Israel continued to camp at Gilgal in the desert near Jericho, and on the fourteenth day of the same month,[e] they celebrated Passover.
11-12 (C) The next day, God stopped sending the Israelites manna[f] to eat each morning, and they started eating food grown in the land of Canaan. They ate roasted grain[g] and thin bread[h] made of the barley they had gathered from nearby fields.
Israel Captures Jericho
13 One day, Joshua was near Jericho when he saw a man standing some distance in front of him. The man was holding a sword, so Joshua walked up to him and asked, “Are you on our side or on our enemies' side?”
14 “Neither,” he answered. “I am here because I am the commander of the Lord's army.”
Joshua fell to his knees and bowed down to the ground. “I am your servant,” he said. “Tell me what to do.”
15 “Take off your sandals,” the commander answered. “This is a holy place.”
So Joshua took off his sandals.
Footnotes
- 5.2 flint knives: Flint is a stone that can be chipped until it forms a very sharp edge.
- 5.2 circumcise … men and boys: They could not celebrate Passover unless they were circumcised (see Exodus 12.43-49).
- 5.3 Haaraloth Hill: Or “Foreskin Hill.”
- 5.9 Gilgal: In Hebrew “Gilgal” sounds like “take away.”
- 5.10 the same month: See the note at 4.19.
- 5.11,12 manna: The special food that God provided for the Israelites while they were in the desert for 40 years. It was about the size of a small seed, and it appeared on the ground during the night, except on the Sabbath. It was gathered early in the morning, ground up, and then baked or boiled (see Exodus 16.13-36; Numbers 11.4-9).
- 5.11,12 roasted grain: Roasted grain was made by cooking the grain in a dry pan or on a flat rock, or by holding a bunch of grain stalks over a fire.
- 5.11,12 thin bread: Bread made without yeast. Israelites were not supposed to eat bread made with yeast for the week following Passover. That week is called the Festival of Thin Bread (see Exodus 12.14-20; 13.3-7).
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.
