Dual Panel1When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings who lived along the Mediterranean coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, they lost heart and were paralyzed with fear.
2At that time the LORD told Joshua, "Use knives of flint to make the Israelites a circumcised people again."
3So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the entire male population of Israel at Gibeath–haaraloth.
4Joshua had to circumcise them because all the men who were old enough to bear arms when they left Egypt had died in the wilderness.
5Those who left Egypt had all been circumcised, but none of those born after the Exodus, during the years in the wilderness, had been circumcised.
6The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were old enough to bear arms when they left Egypt had died. For they had disobeyed the LORD, and the LORD vowed he would not let them enter the land he had sworn to give us––a land flowing with milk and honey.
7So Joshua circumcised their sons who had not been circumcised on the way to the Promised Land––those who had grown up to take their fathers’ places.
8After all the males had been circumcised, they rested in the camp until they were healed.
9Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt." So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.
10While the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month––the month that marked their exodus from Egypt.
11The very next day they began to eat unleavened bread and roasted grain harvested from the land.
12No manna appeared that day, and it was never seen again. So from that time on the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.
13As Joshua approached the city of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man facing him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you friend or foe?"
14"Neither one," he replied. "I am commander of the LORD’s army." At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. "I am at your command," Joshua said. "What do you want your servant to do?"
15The commander of the LORD’s army replied, "Take off your sandals, for this is holy ground." And Joshua did as he was told.