Circumcision at Gilgal
1When all the kings of the Amorites west of the Jordan and all the kings of the Canaanites along the sea heard that Yahweh had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed, their hearts melted, and there was no more spirit left in them because of the Israelites. 2At that time Yahweh said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites a second time.” 3So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at the Hill of Foreskins. 4This is why Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt who were males — all the men of war — had died in the wilderness along the way after leaving Egypt. 5All the people who came out had been circumcised, but none of the people born in the wilderness along the way after leaving Egypt had been circumcised. 6For the Israelites walked in the wilderness forty years, until the whole nation — the men of war who had come out of Egypt — had died off, because they did not obey the voice of Yahweh. Yahweh had sworn to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7He raised up their children in their place, and it was these that Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised, not having been circumcised along the way. 8When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they stayed where they were in the camp until they had healed. 9Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day. 10The Israelites camped at Gilgal and kept the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, on the plains of Jericho. 11The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate unleavened bread and roasted grain from the produce of the land. 12The manna stopped the day after they ate the produce of the land; the Israelites no longer had manna, but that year they ate from the harvest of the land of Canaan.
The Commander of Yahweh’s Army
13When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up, and there stood a man facing him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and said, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” 14He said, “Neither — I have come now as commander of the army of Yahweh.” Joshua fell facedown to the ground and bowed, and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15The commander of the army of Yahweh said to Joshua, “Take off your sandal, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
