Joshua 5:4 explains why Joshua performed a second circumcision on the people of Israel at Gilgal: the generation that had left Egypt had died off in the wilderness, and the men who had not been circumcised as boys were now their sons, who had grown up uncircumcised during those forty years. The verse is a narrator’s explanation written by the author of the book of Joshua, addressed to Israel’s later readers, so they would understand a rite that might otherwise seem strange at the threshold of the promised land.
This is the reason Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt, who were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way, after they came out of Egypt.
Joshua 5:4 (WEB)
What Joshua 5:4 Means
The verse begins with “This is the reason,” which tells you the author is giving a cause for what came before it in verse 3. Joshua had just circumcised the people with flint knives, and this sentence says why that was needed. The phrase “all the people who came out of Egypt, who were males” points to the adult men who left Egypt in the Exodus, and “even all the men of war” stresses that even the soldiers of that generation were included.
The key idea is that these men “died in the wilderness along the way.” The verse does not say they were punished in a single moment, but it connects their deaths to the long journey of the forty years described in the wider passage, a generation lost because of unbelief. The sentence is a summary of history, not a promise or a command, and it leaves the reader to see the rest of the story in the surrounding verses.
The Context of Joshua 5:4
The book of Joshua tells how Israel entered and took the land of Canaan after Moses died, and it is traditionally attributed to Joshua himself, with later editorial touches that many scholars recognize. Its first readers were the Israelite community who had settled the land, and this chapter reminds them that their identity as God’s covenant people went back to the rite of circumcision given to Abraham. The verses just before describe the Canaanite kings hearing how the Jordan had been dried up, so the reader is set up to see a people now ready and set apart.
The verses that follow in verse 5 and 6 state that the people born in the wilderness had not been circumcised, and verse 6 explains that the generation of the Exodus perished because they did not listen to the Lord. Read this way, verse 4 is not a random note about biology. It is the hinge between a generation that failed to trust God and a new generation that is about to be renewed under the same covenant.
Key Phrases in Joshua 5:4
Deuteronomy 10:16
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
(WEB)
This verse calls Israel to circumcise the foreskin of the heart, which shows that the outward sign of the covenant was meant to point to an inward change. Reading it alongside Joshua 5:4 helps you see that the physical rite was a picture of a deeper willingness to belong to God.
Hebrews 3:18-19
18 To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.
(WEB)
The writer of Hebrews looks back at the wilderness generation and explains that they did not enter God’s rest because of unbelief. This passage gives the New Testament reading of the same story, showing why the people of Joshua’s day were lost and why trust matters so much for the readers of every age.
A Short Prayer From Joshua 5:4
Lord, you know the places in my life where I have delayed obedience or turned back from the path you set before me. Thank you that you do not give up on those who have wandered in the wilderness, and that you call us back to the covenant you made with your people. Help me to trust you when the road ahead feels long, and give me the courage to take the next faithful step, however small. Keep my heart turned toward you, so that I do not fall away when the way is hard. Amen.
