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Joshua 5:2
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The Second Generation Circumcised

1 So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites awho were by the sea, bheard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until1 we had crossed over, that their heart melted; cand there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.  
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make aflint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.”  
3 So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at1 the hill of the foreskins.  
4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: aAll the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt.  
5 For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised.
6 For the children of Israel walked aforty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were1 consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that bHe would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, c“a land flowing with milk and honey.”  
7 Then Joshua circumcised atheir sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.  
Book Notes:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Book Notes

Joshua

JOSHUA. The title of this book is derived from the pious and valiant leader whose achievements it relates and who is commonly supposed to have been its author. The objections to this idea are founded chiefly on the clause, "unto this day," which occurs several times (Joshua 4:9; Joshua 6:25; Joshua 8:28). But this, at least in the case of Rahab, is no valid reason for rejecting the idea of his authorship; for assuming what is most probable, that this book was composed toward the close of Joshua's long career, or compiled from written documents left by him, Rahab might have been still alive. A more simple and satisfactory way of accounting for the frequent insertion of the clause, "unto this day," is the opinion that it was a comment introduced by Ezra, when revising the sacred canon; and this difficulty being removed, the direct proofs of the book having been produced by a witness of the transactions related in it, the strong and vivid descriptions of the passing scenes, and the use of the words "we" and "us," (Joshua 5:1-6), viewed in connection with the fact, that, after his farewell address to the people, Joshua "wrote these words in the book of the law of God" [Joshua 24:26] —all afford strong presumptive proof that the entire book was the work of that eminent individual. Its inspiration and canonical authority are fully established by the repeated testimonies of other Scripture writers (compare Joshua 6:26 with I Kings 16:34; compare Joshua 10:13 with Habakkuk 3:11; Joshua 3:14 with Acts 7:45; Joshua 6:17-23 with Hebrews 11:30; Joshua 2:1-24 with James 2:25; Psalms 44:2; Psalms 68:12-14; Psalms 78:54-55). As a narrative of God's faithfulness in giving the Israelites possession of the promised land, this history is most valuable, and bears the same character as a sequel to the Pentateuch, that the Acts of the Apostles do to the Gospels.

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