Joshua 5:4
“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.”
What does Joshua 5:4 mean?
After forty years of wandering in the desert, an entire generation had passed away, including all the fighting men who had left Egypt. Joshua needed to circumcise the new generation born during those wilderness years, partly as a renewal of the covenant with God that their ancestors had made, and partly to mark these young men as God's people as they prepared to enter the promised land. It's a poignant reminder that the generation who witnessed the miracles of the exodus didn't live to see their destination, yet their children were about to inherit what had been promised. The act itself says something tender: God was making a fresh start with the next generation, giving them their own chance to belong fully to his covenant community.