Josue 5:2
At that time the Lord said to Josue: Make thee knives of stone, and circumcise the second time the children of Israel.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Eo tempore ait Dominus ad Josue : Fac tibi cultros lapideos, et circumcide secundo filios Israël.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦτον τὸν καιρὸν εἶπεν Κύριος τῷ Ἰησοῖ Ποίησον σεαυτῷ μαχαίρας πετρίνας ἐκ πέτρας ἀκροτόμου, καὶ καθίσας περίτεμε τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραήλ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- בָּעֵ֣ת הַהִ֗יא אָמַ֤ר יְהוָה֙ אֶל יְהוֹשֻׁ֔עַ עֲשֵׂ֥ה לְךָ֖ חַֽרְב֣וֹת צֻרִ֑ים וְשׁ֛וּב מֹ֥ל אֶת בְּנֵֽי יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל שֵׁנִֽית
Haydock's commentary
Time. While the enemy was rendered incapable of attacking the Israelites by excessive fear (Calmet) and consternation, Josue was commanded to renew the sign of the covenant, by which they were to take possession of the land, and it is supposed that he complied the day after he arrived at Galgal; (Haydock) so that the wound would be healing, when the feast of the Passover commenced four days later. On the third day it is most painful. (Genesis xxxiv. 25.)
Of stone. Hebrew tsurim, which some translate, "sharp;" but the Septuagint and the best interpreters agree, that the word indicates a stone. Such a knife was used by Sephora. (Exodus iv. 25.) It was supposed that sharp stones would cause less inflammation or danger. Samiâ testâ....amputabant, nec aliter citra perniciem. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxv. 12.) Herodotus (ii. 86,) observes, that the Egyptian embalmers opened the body of the deceased with a "sharp Ethiopian stone." The people of Africa, and of America, have frequently used stone to cut wood, &c. Some of the Fathers assert, that Christ was circumcised with a knife of stone. But any other sharp instrument might be used for the purpose. Any person might perform the operation. Izates, king of the Adiabenians, received circumcision from the hand of a surgeon. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] xx. 2.) (Calmet)
Time. Not that such as had been circumcised before were to be circumcised again: but that they were now to renew, and take up again the practice of circumcision; which had been omitted during their 40 years' sojourning in the wilderness; by reason of their being always uncertain when they should be obliged to march. (Challoner)
Read on
St. Augustine (q. 6,) seems to think that the Israelites despised this ceremony in the desert. Theodoret (q. 2,) supposes it was disused because it was not then necessary, to distinguish the Israelites from other nations. Masius is of opinion that God would not allow them to employ it, after their revolt at Cades-barne, when they would not take possession of the land of Chanaan; and hence they could not resume that privilege, till God had authorized them again, ver 7., and Numbers xiv. 33. The covenant with God, of which circumcision was the seal, had been, in the mean time, suspended. But as the Israelites are no where blamed, in Scripture, on account of this omission, it seems that God dispensed with them during the 38 years after they left Sinai, that the children might not be exposed to the evident danger of perishing, as the people knew not how soon the cloud would give notice for an immediate departure. (Calmet)
Since they were now in the midst of the nations of Chanaan, this distinctive mark (Menochius) was to be henceforth diligently observed. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Justin Martyr Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter XXIV. The Christians’
“Now, sirs,” I said, “it is possible for us to show how the eighth day possessed a certain mysterious import, which the seventh day did not possess, and which was promulgated by God through these rites. But lest I appear now to diverge to other subjects, understand what I say: the blood of that circumcision is obsolete, and we trust in the blood of salvation; there is now another covenant, and another law has gone forth from Zion. Jesus Christ circumcises all who will, as was declared above, with knives of stone; that they may be a righteous nation, a people keeping faith, holding to the truth, and maintaining peace. Come then with me, all who fear God, who wish to see the good of Jerusalem. Come, let us go to the light of the Lord; for He has liberated His people, the house of Jacob. …
St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, Testimony VIII
In Jeremiah: “Thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah, and to them who inhabit Jerusalem, Renew newness among you, and do not sow among thorns: circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart; lest my anger go forth like fire, and burn you up, and there be none to extinguish it.” Also Moses says: “In the last days God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God.” Also in Jesus the son of Nave: “And the Lord said unto Jesus, Make thee small knives of stone, very sharp, and set about to circumcise the children of Israel for the second time.” Paul also, to the Colossians: “Ye are circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands in the putting off of the flesh, but with the circumcision of Christ.” Also, because Adam was first made by God uncircumcised, and righteous Abel, and Enoch, who pleased God and was translated; and …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Abigaus
I commend to you, although she needs no commendation but her own, my holy daughter Theodora, formerly the wife or rather the sister of Lucinius of blessed memory. Tell her that she must not grow weary of the path upon which she has entered, and that she can only reach the Holy Land by toiling through the wilderness. Warn her against supposing that the work of virtue is perfected when she has made her exodus from Egypt. Remind her that she must pass through snares innumerable to arrive at mount Nebo and the River Jordan, that she must receive circumcision anew at Gilgal, that Jericho must fall before her, overthrown by the blasts of priestly trumpets, that Adoni-zedec must be slain, that Ai and Hazor, once fairest of cities, must both fall.
St John Damascene An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Concerning the Circumcision
The Circumcision was given to Abraham before the law, after the blessings, after the promise, as a sign separating him and his offspring and his household from the Gentiles with whom he lived. And this is evident, for when the Israelites passed forty years alone by themselves in the desert, having no intercourse with any other race, all that were born in the desert were uncircumcised: but when Joshua led them across Jordan, they were circumcised, and a second law of circumcision was instituted. For in Abraham’s time the law of circumcision was given, and for the forty years in the desert it fell into abeyance. …