2At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel once again.”
3So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.
4Now this is why Joshua circumcised them: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of war—had died on the journey in the wilderness after they had left Egypt.
5Though all who had come out were circumcised, none of those born in the wilderness on the journey from Egypt had been circumcised.
6For the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness forty years, until all the nation’s men of war who had come out of Egypt had died, since they did not obey the LORD. So the LORD vowed never to let them see the land He had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
7And He raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. Until this time they were still uncircumcised, since they had not been circumcised along the way.
8And after all the nation had been circumcised, they stayed there in the camp until they were healed.