The Israelites Are Circumcised

5 And it happened, when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites[fn] who were by the sea heard that Yahweh dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of the Israelites[fn] until they crossed over, their hearts melted, and there was no courage left in them[fn] because of the presence of the Israelites.[fn]

2 At that time Yahweh said to Joshua, “Make for yourself knives of flint, and circumcise the Israelites[fn] a second time.” 3 So Joshua made knives of flint, and he circumcised the Israelites[fn] at the hill of the foreskins.[fn] 4 This is the reason why Joshua circumcised all the people: all the males who went out from Egypt, all the warriors, died in the wilderness as they went out from Egypt on the journey.[fn] 5 For all the people who left were circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the journey[fn] after they left from Egypt were not circumcised. 6 For forty years the Israelites[fn] traveled in the wilderness until all the nation, the warriors that left Egypt, perished, because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. To them Yahweh swore that they would not see the land that he[fn] swore to their ancestors[fn] to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 And it was their children whom he raised in their place that Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the journey.[fn]