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.