Joshua 5

THE CIRCUMCISION OF ISRAEL BY JOSHUA ( Joshua 5:2-9 ). (2) Make thee sharp knives.—Authorities are divided between the rendering “sharp knives” and “knives of flint.” The first seems best supported, as far as the meaning of the words is concerned. The expression is “knives of tsurim.” The word tsûr does not seem anywhere to be connected with the material of the tool, but rather with the edge of it. Knives of keen edge is, therefore, the better translation. At the same time they may have been stone knives in this instance. The idea that they were so is supported by an addition in the LXX. to Joshua 24:30 : “They put with him (Joshua) into the tomb . . . the knives of stone with which he circumcised the children of Israel . . . and there they are to this day.” The ceremony being a kind of special consecration, it is not unlikely to have been performed with special instruments, which were not used before or after. Comp. Psalm 89:43, “Thou hast turned the tsûr (keen edge) of his sword;” 2Samuel 2:16, “Helkath Hazzurim”—i.e., the field of keen blades; Exodus 4:25, “Zipporah took a tzôr “; Ezekiel 3:9, “an adamant harder than tzôr.”

Joshua 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 God’s 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.

Joshua 5:2 . At that time — Namely, the morning after the passage, on the eleventh day of the first month, as Archbishop Usher and others have very probably conjectured. On the thirteenth day they were sore of their wounds, on the fourteenth they recovered, and on the even of that day kept the passover. Make thee sharp knives — Or, knives of flints, as the original חרבות צרים , charboth tzurim, more properly signifies, and is translated by Maimonides. These stones might be found in abundance on the adjacent mountains; and it is likely, as Theodoret observes, that after a pilgrimage of forty years in the wilderness of Arabia, the Israelites might not be provided with knives of iron or steel, such as are now in use. But whatever kind of knives may be here meant, those who had them already were not hereby commanded to make others, but only to make them sharp. Again the second time — This does not mean that those very persons who had before been circumcised should be circumcised again, but that the rite or custom of circumcising, which had been disused in the wilderness for some years, should be again practised. That this is the sense, appears very evident from the following verses. If it be inquired, when the former time, here referred to, was?

Ch. Joshua 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 Joshua 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.”

2 . Make thee sharp knives ] Or, as in margin, knives of flint. “Stonen knyues,” Wyclif. In Exodus 4:25 we read that Zipporah, the wife of Moses, took a “sharp stone,” or “knife of flint,” and circumcised her son. Joshua followed the custom of antiquity on this occasion, for they had no other knives with them. Herodotus, 11. 86, mentions “stone knives” as used by the Egyptian embalmers, and with such the priests of Cybele mutilated themselves. A representation of the Egyptian flint knife from the Museum at Berlin is given in Smith’s Biblical Dictionary . and circumcise ] For forty years in the wilderness the nation had been under judgment, and those born there had not received the covenant mark of circumcision. To renew that rite in their case was the first necessity, that Israel might be restored to its full position as the Covenant-people of God. the second time ] All, it is to be remembered, who, having come out from Egypt, were at the time of the sentence at Kadesh under twenty years old ( Numbers 14:29 ), i.e. all at Gilgal, who were 38 years old and upwards, had been circumcised. The rite, therefore, now applies only to the residue.