Joshua 5:4

“And this [is] the cause why Joshua did circumcise, etc.] Or the reason of the command given him to circumcise the children of Israel at this time, namely, what follows: all the people that came out of Egypt [that were] males, [even] all the men of war; meaning such that were twenty years old, and upwards: died in the wilderness, by the way, after they came out of Egypt; not directly, but in a course of forty years, as they journeyed through the wilderness; this is to be understood with an exception of Joshua, Caleb, Eleazar, etc. but then there was a large number who were under twenty years of age, that came out of Egypt, and were now living.”

“this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise--The omission to circumcise the children born in the wilderness might have been owing to the incessant movements of the people; but it is most generally thought that the true cause was a temporary suspension of the covenant with the unbelieving race who, being rejected of the Lord, were doomed to perish in the wilderness, and whose children had to bear the iniquity of their fathers (Num 14:33), though, as the latter were to be brought into the promised land, the covenant would be renewed with them.”

“Of the whole nation those only were already circumcised at the time of the passage of the Jordan who had been under twenty years of age at the time of the complaining and consequent rejection at Kadesh (compare the marginal reference). These would have been circumcised before they left Egypt, and there would still survive of them more than a quarter of a million of thirty-eight years old and upward. The statements of these verses are of a general kind. The “forty years” of Joshua 5:6 is a round number, and the statement in the latter part of Joshua 5:5 cannot be strictly accurate. For there must have been male children born in the wilderness during the first year after the Exodus, and these…”

“Out of Egypt - This is to be restrained to such as were then above twenty years old, and such as were guilty of that rebellion, Num. 14:1-25, as it is expressed below, Jos 5:6. Joshua 5:5”

“5:4-7 This unexpected detour in the narrative provides an important reminder of Israel’s earlier refusal to believe that God would bring them safely into the land of Canaan (Num 14). This summary of God’s judgment upon their fathers reminded the present generation that trusting in God was still necessary if they were to occupy the land their ancestors had forfeited. Further, it signaled the completion of God’s judgment upon the earlier generation.”

“All the: Num 14:22, Num 26:64, Num 26:65; Deu 2:16; Co1 10:5; Heb 3:17-19 Joshua 5:5”