Joshua 5King James Version
All the males born in the wilderness, who had not been circumcised on the journey, are circumcised at Gilgal. The Passover is kept. The manna stops falling the next day because they eat the produce of the land. Joshua lifts his eyes and sees a man with a drawn sword. The man says he is the captain of the host of the Lord. Joshua falls on his face.
At Gilgal, Israel performs circumcision on an entire generation born in the wilderness, followed by the first Passover in Canaan. The manna stops the day after they eat from the land. Joshua encounters a mysterious armed figure outside Jericho who identifies himself as commander of the LORD's army and demands Joshua remove his sandals.
Before the first battle, Israel must be consecrated. The conquest is a holy war, not a military campaign, and holy war begins with holiness.
verse 9: "And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you." The word play on Gilgal (to roll) marks a pivot: the shame of wilderness wandering and slavery is finished.
Gilgal in the Jordan plain, spring 1406 BC. The camp is temporarily immobilized, thousands of men recovering from circumcision, the smell of Passover lamb smoke drifting across the valley. For the first time in forty years there is no manna on the ground at morning. Joshua walks alone toward Jericho at dusk and meets a figure with a drawn sword standing between him and the closed city gates.
Joshua, who leads both rites; the generation of fighting men born in the wilderness who undergo circumcision; the unnamed captain of the LORD's host, who appears sword-drawn and refuses to be categorized as friend or foe; the Amorite and Canaanite kings who hear of the crossing and lose heart.
The manna stopping is a quiet but significant moment: forty years of supernatural provision ends the day natural food is available. The theophany at chapter's end mirrors Moses at the burning bush, establishing that Joshua stands on consecrated ground and operates under direct divine command. The book frames the conquest as a liturgical act, not merely a military one.
After the terror of crossing and the urgency of circumcision and Passover preparation, the sudden appearance of the armed stranger outside Jericho is unsettling. Joshua's first response is not fear but challenge: he walks toward the figure and asks whose side it is on.
1And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.
2At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.
3And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.
4And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.
5Now 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, them they had not circumcised.
6For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
7And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.
8And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole.
9And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.
10And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
11And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.
12And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
13And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
14And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
15And the captain of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.