Albert Barnes Commentary Joshua 5:8

"And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the nation, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole." — Joshua 5:8 (ASV)

The circumcision must have taken place on the day after the passage of the Jordan, that is, the 11th Nisan, and the Passover was kept on the 14th of the same month. For at least that long, those who had been circumcised would be disabled from war (compare the marginal reference), though they would not necessarily be debarred from keeping the feast. The submission of the people to the rite was a proof of faith, even though we remember that the panic of the Canaanites (Joshua 5:1) would render any immediate attack from them unlikely, and that there must have been a large number of “men of war” who would not need to be circumcised at all (see the note at Joshua 5:4).