Today, I am reading and commenting on  Joshua 5-7.

I am not sure if I have written on this before, but one of the things which hits me when I read this passage is the length of time between the Israelites crossing the Jordan and the beginning of the siege of Jericho.  I am used to thinking that the Israelites crossed the Jordan and promptly besieged Jericho, but that is not what happened.  Or, maybe the siege did begin as soon as they crossed over, but if so that makes the passage even stranger.  So, the Israelites had spied out Jericho before crossing the Jordan.  Then they crossed the Jordan and camped on the plains of Jericho.  Once they were camped there, Joshua had all of the men circumcised.  That is strange in and of itself, why weren’t they circumcised shortly after they were born, while the Israelites were in the wilderness.  It is one of those details which leaves me wondering how anyone can perceive the Book of Joshua as just a “compilation of bedtime stories” rather than a record of events which actually happened.  If the Book of Joshua was made up in order to justify the control of the land by a particular group of people (usually postulated to be the “Returned Exiles”).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.