Albert Barnes Commentary Joshua 5:4-7

"And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: all the people that came forth out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came forth out of Egypt. 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, they had not circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the nation, even the men of war that came forth out of Egypt, were consumed, because they hearkened not unto the voice of Jehovah: unto whom Jehovah sware that he would not let them see the land which Jehovah sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them did Joshua circumcise: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way." — Joshua 5:4-7 (ASV)

Of the whole nation, only those were already circumcised at the time of the passage of the Jordan who had been under twenty years of age at the time of the complaining and consequent rejection at Kadesh. These would have been circumcised before they left Egypt, and more than a quarter of a million of them, thirty-eight years old and older, would still have survived.

The statements of these verses are of a general kind. The “forty years” from Joshua 5:6 is a round number, and the statement in the latter part of Joshua 5:5 cannot be strictly accurate. For male children must have been born in the wilderness during the first year after the Exodus, and these must have been circumcised before the celebration of the Passover at Sinai in the first month of the second year (Compare Numbers 9:1-5 and Exodus 12:48). The statements of the verses are, however, sufficiently close to the facts for the present purpose, namely, to provide a reason for the general circumcision which is recorded here.

The reason circumcision was omitted in the wilderness was that the sentence of Numbers 14:28 and following placed the whole nation for that time under a ban. The discontinuance of circumcision, and the consequent omission of the Passover, was a consequence and a token of that ban.

This rejection was not, indeed, total, for the children of the complainers were to enter into the rest. Nor was it final, for when the children had borne the punishment of their fathers’ sins for the appointed years, and the complainers were dead, then the ban was to be removed, as it was now by Joshua.

But for that time the covenant was abrogated, though God’s purpose to restore it was made known from the first and confirmed by the visible marks of His favor, which He still graciously bestowed during the wandering.

The years of rejection were indeed exhausted before the death of Moses . However, God would not call upon the people to renew their engagement to Him until He had first given them glorious proof of His will and power to fulfill His engagements to them.

So He gave them the first fruits of the promised inheritance—the kingdoms of Sihon and Og—and through a miracle, planted their feet on the very soil that still remained to be conquered. Then He recalled them to His covenant.

It is to be noted, too, that they were just about to go to war against foes mightier than themselves. Their only hope of success lay in the help of God. At such a crisis, the need for full communion with God would indeed be felt, and the blessing and strength of it were accordingly granted.

The revival of the two great ordinances—circumcision and the Passover—after such a long intermission certainly awakened the zeal and invigorated the faith and fortitude of the people. Both as seals and as means of grace and God’s good purpose toward them at that time, the general circumcision of the people, followed by the solemn celebration of the Passover—the one formally restoring the covenant and reconciling them nationally to God, the other ratifying and confirming all that circumcision intended—were at this critical moment most opportune.