Joshua 5:6

6 For the people of Israel walked ¹forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD; the LORD ²swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give to us, ³a land flowing with milk and honey.

Joshua 5:6 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 5:6

For the children of Israel walked forty years in the
wilderness
Wanting a few days, the round number is given: not forty two, as the Septuagint version:

till all the people [that were] men of war, which came out of Egypt,
were consumed;
all that were above twenty years of age, excepting Joshua and Caleb:

because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord;
but murmured against him, and against his servants, and particularly against Aaron, being the high priest; and chiefly because of the report of the spies, and their murmurs then, which so incensed the Lord against them, that he threatened them with an entire consumption of their carcasses, and which accordingly was fulfilled, to which the following clause refers:

unto whom the Lord sware, that he would not show them the land which
the Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that
floweth with milk and honey;
see ( Numbers 14:23 Numbers 14:24 ) .

Joshua 5:6 In-Context

4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt.

5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.

6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD; the LORD swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.

Cross References

• 1. Numbers 14:33; Deuteronomy 1:3; Deuteronomy 2:7, 14; Deuteronomy 8:4; Psalms 95:10
• 2. Numbers 14:23; Psalms 95:11; Hebrews 3:11
• 3. See Exodus 3:8