World English Bible · Entering the land
Joshua 5
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When all the kings of the , who were beyond westward, and all the kings of , who were by the sea, heard how had dried up the waters of from before the until we had crossed over, their melted, and there was no more in them, because of the . At that time, said to , "Make flint knives, and circumcise again the the second time." made himself flint knives, and the at the hill of the foreskins. This is the reason them: all the people who came out of , who were males, even all the men of war, in along , after they came out of . For all the people who came out were ; but all the people who were born in along as they came out of had not been . For the walked forty years in until all the nation, even the men of war who came out of , were consumed, because they didn't listen to voice. to them that he wouldn't let them see the land which to their fathers that he would give us, a and honey. Their children, whom he up in their place, were by , for they were , because they had not them on . When they were done circumcising the whole nation, they stayed in their places in the camp until they were healed. said to , "Today I have rolled away the of from you." Therefore the name of that place was called to this day. The encamped in . They kept on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of . They ate cakes and parched grain of the produce of the land on the next day after , in the same day. ceased on the next day, after they had eaten of the produce of the land. The didn't have any more, but they ate of the fruit of the land of that year. When was by , he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood in front of him with his drawn in his hand. went to him and said to him, "Are you for us, or for our ?" He said, "No; but I have come now as commander of army." fell on to the earth, and , and asked him, "What does my say to his servant?" The prince of army said to , "Take off your , for the place on which you stand is ." did so.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Entering the land, 1250 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel crossing into Canaan and contending with fortified city-states, each with its own king, in a land Egypt had recently dominated and was now losing its grip on.
- The collapse
- The whole eastern Mediterranean is coming apart. Within about fifty years the Hittite empire falls, its capital burns, the Mycenaean palaces are destroyed, Ugarit is wiped out mid-correspondence, and Egypt is fighting for its life against seaborne invaders. Nobody fully knows why. Drought, earthquake, migration, and the failure of interlocking trade are all in the explanation.
- Egypt
- Still strong enough to record a victory over a people called Israel on a stone monument around 1207 BC, the earliest mention of the name outside the Bible. But Egyptian control of Canaan is slipping, and within a generation it is gone.
- Canaan
- Not a country but dozens of walled towns, each with its own king, its own god, and its own quarrel with the next valley. This is why the book of Joshua reads as a list of kings rather than a war with a nation.
- Further afield
- Iron is beginning to replace bronze across the region, partly because the tin trade that made bronze possible has broken down. The Olmec are building San Lorenzo. The Zhou are about to overthrow the Shang in China.