Josh 5.1-15 will tell us that Israel will be circumcised a second time (5.2), after an earlier general circumcision. Those being circumcised will be those who were born in the wilderness (5.5). This circumcision will be done at Gildal, which means to “roll away.” Gilgal is related to the Hebrew “gulgoleth” in Num1.2; 1 Chr 23.3; 24; 2 Kings 9.35, and the word “Golgotha” where Yeshua was crucified. It was called that because it was a little knoll “rounded” like a bare shull. His death “rolled away” our sin and the curse of the law -death. We are no longer “under arrest or indictment” and we can have the “circumcision of the heart.” Being “born again” is synonymous with the circumcision of the heart. We will also learn that Joshua is visited by a being called “the captain of the Lord’s host” or armies. This tells Joshua that he will have spiritual help.
v 1…Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea (Mediterranean), heard how the Lord fried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their heart (lev) melted, and there was no spirit (ruach) in them any longer (a parallelism), because of the sons of Israel (Satan has lost his kingdom also).
v 2…At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel, the second time (the first was with that generation that came out of Egypt; that generation was stubborn and fell, and their children were not circumcised in the wilderness).
v 3…So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel (ordered it to be done) at Gibeah-haaraloth (mound of foreskins).
v 4…And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way, after they came out of Egypt.
v 5…For all the people who came out were circumcised (but their hearts were not circumcised and were stubborn, and did not partake of the sign and seal of the Abrahamic blessing), but all the people born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised (because they would not listen to the voice of the Lord).
v 6…For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord had sworn that he would let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
v 7…And their children whom he raised up in their place, Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised because they had not circumcised them along the way.
v 8…Mow it came about when they had finished circumcising all the nation, that they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.
v 9…Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you (of being slaves and bondmen; they were now entering into their inheritance as free men).” So the name of that place is called Gilgal (root is “galal” the same as Golgotha) to this day (Joshua circumcised the flesh around Passover, and at Golgotha, a word related to Gilgal, Yeshua rolled away our reproach of sin and circumcised our hearts at another Passover).
v 10…While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal, they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month (of Nisan) on the desert plains of Jericho.
v 11…And on the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.
v 12…And the manna ceased on that day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.
v 13…Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”
v 14…And he said, “No (not for their enemies), rather, I indeed come now as the captain of the host (armies) of the Lord (ready to obey the commander-in-chief Yehovah, and Joshua was his general). And Joshua fell fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?”
v 15…And the captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy (Jericho has been “set apart” with a kedusha with certain limitations and restrictions, and all in it, so it has a kedusha to God; and is “cherem” or devoted to destruction). And Joshua did so.
Josh 6.1-27 tells us about the sure victory over Jericho; the instruction to go around the city for seven days with the ark and trumpets; the destruction of the city and the salvation of Rahab and her house; a curse upon any man who would rebuild the city.
v 1…Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel, no one went out and no one went in.
v 2…And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors.
v 3…And you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days (alluding to the six days of the Olam Ha Zeh; beginning on Nisan 22 after unleavened bread was over-5.11).
v 4…And seven (completion) priests shall carry seven (completion) trumpets (shofarot) of ram’s horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times (completion; alludes to the day of the Lord).
v 5…And it shall be that when they make a long blast with the rams’ horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout (teruah; alludes to the Natzal or rapture at the beginning of the seventh day or day of the Lord beginning on Tishri 1, year 6001,q called Rosh Ha Shannah, or Yom Teruah in Num 29.1-2; 1 Cor 15.51-52; 1 Thes 4.13-18; ); and the wall of the city will fall down flat (under itself), and the people will go up (ascend) every man straight ahead (not scale the wall or rubble; this was to show that the city fell because of the power of Yehovah).”
v 6…So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets (shofarot) of ram’s horns before the ark of the Lord.”
v 7…Then he said to the people, “Go forward and march around the city and let the armed men go on before the ark of the Lord.”
v 8…And it was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram’s horns before the Lord went forward and blew the trumpets, and the ark of the Lord followed them.
v 9…And the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard (tribe of Dan was the rear guard when traveling-Num 2.31) came after the ark, while they continued to blow the trumpets.’
v 10…But Joshua commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard, nor let a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I tell you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall shout (our message should be nothing more or nothing less than what God has told us)!”
v 11…So he had the ark of the Lord taken around the city, circling it once, then they came into the camp and spent the night in the amp.
v 12…Now Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord.
v 13…And the seven priests carrying the seven ram’s horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew the trumpets; and the armed men went before the them, and the rear guard (tribe of Dan) came after the ark of the Lord, while they continued to blow the trumpets.’
v 14…Thus the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp; they did so for six days.
v 15…Then it came about on the seventh day that they rose early at the dawning of the day (alluding to Rosh Ha Shannah, year 6001) and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times.
v 16…And it came about at the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.
v 17…And the city shall be under the ban (cherem), it and all that is in it belongs to the Lord (5.15); only Rahab the harlot (“zonah” can mean innkeeper-see the article called “Rahab the Innkeeper” by cbeinternational.org; Josephus says she was an innkeeper and clothing maker in Antiquities Book 5.1.2) and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.
v 18…But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban (cherem), lest you covet them and take some of the things under the ban, so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it (Jericho was the first fruits from the land and it belongs to the Lord).
v 19…But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord, they shall go into the treasury of the Lord (a room for it at the Mishkan-Josh 6.24).”
v 20…So the people shouted, and the priests blew the trumpets; and it came about, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout (teruah-Rosh Ha Shannah is called Yom Teruah-1 Thes 4.16), and the wall fell down flat (under itself), so that the people went up into the city, everyman straight ahead, and they took the city.
v 21…And they utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.
v 22…And Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the harlot’s house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her (before the the judgment came, a picture of the Natzal).”
v 23…So the young men (ne’arim) who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had, they also brought out all her relatives, and placed them outside the camp of Israel (the believed the word of Rahab and were saved).
v 24…And they burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron, they pout into the treasury of the house of the Lord.
v 25…However, Rahab the harlot (innkeeper) and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
v 26…Then Joshua made them (the people) take an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his first-born he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates (hundreds of years later Hiel the Bethelite in the times of Ahab tried to do it and lost his oldest and youngest sons-1 Kings 16.34). v 27.
v 27…So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was in all the land.
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