So the news went abroad among the kings of the Amorrhites, who dwelt on the west of Jordan, and the Chanaanite kings by the coast of the great sea, that the Lord had dried up the stream of Jordan to let the Israelites go across. And now their hearts failed them, and their spirits were altogether daunted, such terror was theirs at the coming of Israel.

It was at this time the Lord said to Josue, Have knives made of flint, and restore the rite of circumcision among the sons of Israel.

So he did as the Lord bade him, and restored circumcision to Israel at the Hill of the Foreskins.

There was need to renew this rite, because the men of the older generation, who were of age to bear arms at the time of the escape from Egypt, had died in the course of their desert wanderings.

These had all been circumcised, but the generation which had been born

during those forty years in the waste wilderness, remained uncircumcised still. Those rebels, the Lord had sworn it, must never reach the land that was all milk and honey; now they lay dead,

and their sons had taken their places. For these Josue must renew the rite, men who had grown up uncircumcised through the neglect that came with days of wandering.

So all were circumcised, and they lay encamped there till their wounds healed;

This day, the Lord said to Josue, I have reversed the lot that made you slaves in Egypt; and so the place came to be called Galgal, Turning Round, the name it still bears.✻

In Galgal, then, the Israelites remained encamped, and there they celebrated the pasch on the plains of Jericho, beginning at evening on the fourteenth day of the month.

And when they ate unleavened bread on the morrow, they were eating corn that was grown on the ground where they stood; their flour was made of that year’s harvest.

Once they had begun to enjoy their own harvest, the supply of manna ceased, nor did the sons of Israel ever taste that food again; they ate the crops which the land of Chanaan yielded that year.

There, in the plain by Jericho, Josue looked up and saw a man who stood with drawn sword in his path. Coming close to him, he asked, Art thou of our camp, or of the enemy’s?

Nay, said he, it is the captain of the Lord’s army that has come to thy side.

And with that, Josue cast himself down, face to ground; What message hast thou, my Lord, for thy servant? he asked.

But first he was commanded to take the shoes off his feet, as one that stood on holy ground; so he did as he was bidden.