约书亚记 5:4

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

約書亞給以色列人行割禮的原因是這樣：所有從埃及出來的人民，就是所有能作戰的男丁，出埃及以後，都死在曠野的路上。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
约 书 亚 行 割 礼 的 缘 故 ， 是 因 为 从 埃 及 出 来 的 众 民 ， 就 是 一 切 能 打 仗 的 男 丁 ， 出 了 埃 及 以 後 ， 都 死 在 旷 野 的 路 上 。

Contextual Overview

¹ All the kings of the Amorites west of the Jordan and the Canaanite kings living by the Mediterranean Sea heard that the Lord dried up the Jordan River until the Israelites had crossed it. After that they were scared and too afraid to face the Israelites. ² At that time the Lord said to Joshua, "Make knives from flint stones and circumcise the Israelites." ³ So Joshua made knives from flint stones and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth. ⁴ This is why Joshua circumcised the men: After the Israelites left Egypt, all the men old enough to serve in the army died in the desert on the way out of Egypt. ⁵ The men who had come out of Egypt had been circumcised, but none of those who were born in the desert on the trip from Egypt had been circumcised. ⁶ The Israelites had moved about in the desert for forty years. During that time all the fighting men who had left Egypt had died because they had not obeyed the Lord . So the Lord swore they would not see the land he had promised their ancestors to give them, a fertile land. ⁷ Their sons took their places. But none of the sons born on the trip from Egypt had been circumcised, so Joshua circumcised them. ⁸ After all the Israelites had been circumcised, they stayed in camp until they were healed. ⁹ Then the Lord said to Joshua, "As slaves in Egypt you were ashamed, but today I have removed that shame." So Joshua named that place Gilgal, which it is still named today.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

All the: Numbers 14:22, Numbers 26:64, Numbers 26:65, Deuteronomy 2:16, 1 Corinthians 10:5, Hebrews 3:17-19

Reciprocal: Genesis 17:10 - Every

Cross-References

Genesis 1:28
God blessed them and said, "Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Genesis 5:1
This is the family history of Adam. When God created human beings, he made them in his own likeness.

Genesis 5:3
When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of another son in his likeness and image, and Adam named him Seth.

Genesis 5:7
After Enosh was born, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:10
After Kenan was born, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:13
After Mahalalel was born, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:19
After Enoch was born, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:22
After Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God 300 years more and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:26
After Lamech was born, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:30
After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And this [is] the cause why Joshua did circumcise,.... Or the reason of the command given him to circumcise the children of Israel at this time, namely, what follows:

all the people that came out of Egypt [that were] males, [even] all the men of war; meaning such that were twenty years old, and upwards:

died in the wilderness, by the way, after they came out of Egypt; not directly, but in a course of forty years, as they journeyed through the wilderness; this is to be understood with an exception of Joshua, Caleb, Eleazar, &c. but then there was a large number who were under twenty years of age, that came out of Egypt, and were now living.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Of the whole nation those only were already circumcised at the time of the passage of the Jordan who had been under twenty years of age at the time of the complaining and consequent rejection at Kadesh (compare the marginal reference). These would have been circumcised before they left Egypt, and there would still survive of them more than a quarter of a million of thirty-eight years old and upward.

The statements of these verses are of a general kind. The “forty years” of Joshua 5:6 is a round number, and the statement in the latter part of Joshua 5:5 cannot be strictly accurate. For there must have been male children born in the wilderness during the first year after the Exodus, and these must have been circumcised before the celebration of the Passover at Sinai in the first month of the second year (compare Numbers 9:1-5, and Exodus 12:48). The statements of the verses are, however, sufficiently close to the facts for the purpose in hand; namely, to render a reason for the general circumcising which is here recorded.

The reason why circumcision was omitted in the wilderness, was that the sentence of Numbers 14:28 ff placed the whole nation for the time under a ban; and that the discontinuance of circumcision, and the consequent omission of the Passover, was a consequence and a token of that ban. The rejection was not, indeed, total, for the children of the complainers were to enter into the rest; nor final, for when the children had borne the punishment of the fathers’ sins for the appointed years, and the complainers were dead, then it was to be removed, as now by Joshua. But for the time the covenant was abrogated, though God’s purpose to restore it was from the first made known, and confirmed by the visible marks of His favor which He still vouchsafed to bestow during the wandering. The years of rejection were indeed exhausted before the death of Moses (compare Deuteronomy 2:14): but God would not call upon the people to renew their engagement to Him until He had first given them glorious proof of His will and power to fulfill His engagements to them. So He gave them the first fruits of the promised inheritance - the kingdoms of Sihon and Og; and through a miracle planted their feet on the very soil that still remained to be conquered; and then recalled them to His covenant. It is to be noted, too, that they were just about to go to war against foes mightier than themselves. Their only hope of success lay in the help of God. At such a crisis the need of full communion with God would be felt indeed; and the blessing and strength of it are accordingly granted.

The revival of the two great ordinances - circumcision and the Passover - after so long an intermission could not but awaken the zeal and invigorate the faith and fortitude of the people. Both as seals and as means of grace and God’s good purpose toward them then, the general circumcision of the people, followed up by the solemn celebration of the Passover - the one formally restoring the covenant and reconciling them nationally to God, the other ratifying and confirming all that circumcision intended - were at this juncture most opportune.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Joshua 5:4. This is the cause why Joshua did circumcise — The text here explains itself. Before the Israelites left Egypt all the males were circumcised; and some learned men think that all those who were born during their encampment at Sinai were circumcised also, because there they celebrated the passover; but after that time, during the whole of their stay in the wilderness, there were none circumcised till they entered into the promised land. Owing to their unsettled state, God appears to have dispensed, for the time being, with this rite; but as they were about to celebrate another passover, it was necessary that all the males should be circumcised; for without this they could not be considered within the covenant, and could not keep the passover, which was the seal of that covenant. As baptism is generally understood to have succeeded to circumcision, and the holy eucharist to the passover, hence, in the Church of England, and probably in most others, no person is permitted to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper till he has been baptized.