1All the kings of the people-groups to the west of the Jordan River and all the kings of the groups who were descendants of Canaan and who lived close to the Mediterranean Sea heard about how Yahweh had dried up the water of the Jordan River until all we Israeli people had crossed over. So they became very dismayed. They no longer were courageous enough to fight us.

The Israeli males were circumcised at Gilgal

2While they were camped at Gilgal, Yahweh said to Joshua, “The Israeli males who lived in Egypt were circumcised before they left there. Now make knives from flint stones and circumcise all the Israeli males who have been born since then.”

3So Joshua made knives and circumcised the Israeli males at a place that is now called ‘Circumcision Hill’.

4The reason they did that is that all the men who left Egypt, those who were old enough to be soldiers, died in the desert after they left Egypt.

5They had been circumcised in Egypt, but the baby boys who had been born while their parents were camping in the desert after they left Egypt had not been circumcised.

6Our Israeli ancestors traveled around in the desert for 40 years, and all the men who were old enough to be soldiers had died. The women had also died. They had not obeyed Yahweh, so Yahweh said that they would not arrive at the land that he had promised to our ancestors that he would give to us, a land that was very fertile [MTY].

7The sons of those who had disobeyed Yahweh were the ones whom Joshua circumcised at Gilgal. They were circumcised because they had not been circumcised while they were traveling in the desert.

8After all the Israeli males had been circumcised, they remained in the camp and rested until their wounds were healed.

9Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “Because your forefathers were slaves in Egypt, the Egyptians felt a revulsion toward you. But today I have removed the revulsion the Egyptians have had toward you.” Because of that, the people called the place ‘Gilgal’, which sounds like the Hebrew word ‘removed’, and it still has that name.

10In the evening of the fourteenth day of that month, while the Israeli people were camped at Gilgal, on the plain near Jericho city, they celebrated the Passover Festival.

11The next day, they found some barley grain in the fields in that area. So they took that and roasted it and ate it with bread that was made without yeast.

12The next day, God stopped sending manna for the Israeli people to eat. After that, they ate food that was grown in Canaan.

The commander of Yahweh’s army appeared to Joshua.

13One day when Joshua came near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him. The man was holding a sword in his hand. Joshua approached him and asked him, “Are you going to fight for us or against us?”

14The man replied, “I am not planning to fight with you or against you. Instead, I am the commander of Yahweh’s army in heaven, and I have come down from there to assure you that Yahweh will help you.” Then Joshua bowed down with his face on the ground ◄to show his respect for/to worship► the man, and said to him, “Tell me what you want me to do.”

15The commander of Yahweh’s army replied, “Take off your sandals! I am Yahweh, and the ground on which you are standing is holy because I am here.” So Joshua took off his sandals.