Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
children who had been born between the departure from Egypt and the conclusion of the covenant at
Sinai. We are also prevented from pressing the little word "all" in this manner by the evident meaning of
the words before us. In vv. 4 and 5 the Israelites are divided into two classes:
(1) All the people that came out of Egypt and were circumcised; and (2) All the
people that were born in the desert and were uncircumcised. The first of these died in
the wilderness, the second came to Canaan and were circumcised by Joshua at Gilgal.
But if we should press the word "all" in these clauses, it would follow that all the
male children who were under twenty years of age at the time of the exodus, either
died in the desert or were circumcised a second time at Gilgal. Lastly, it does not
follow from v. 6 that the circumcision was suspended for exactly forty years; for the
forty years during which Israel journeyed in the desert until the murmuring
generation was consumed, are to be interpreted by Num 14:33-34, and amounted,
chronologically considered, to no more than thirty-eight years and a few months (see
the commentary on Num. 24:28 ff.). On the other hand, the other very general view
which Kurtz adopts-namely, that the circumcision was omitted during the journey
through the desert on account of the hardships connected with travelling, and because
it was impossible to have regard to particular families who might wish for longer rest
on account of their children who had just been circumcised, and were suffering from
the wound, just at the time when they had to decamp and journey onward, and they
could not well be left behind-throws but little light upon the subject, as the
assumption that the people were constantly wandering about for forty years is
altogether an unfounded one.
The Israelites were not always wandering about: not only did they stay at Sinai for
eleven whole months, but even after that they halted for weeks and months at the
different places of encampment, when they might have circumcised their children
without the slightest danger of their suffering from the wound.) it did not commence
till the second year of their journey, viz., at the time when the murmuring nation was
rejected at Kadesh (Num 14); so that by "all the people that were born in the
wilderness" we are to understand those who were born after that time, and during the
last thirty-eight years of their wanderings, just as "all the people that came out of
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