The explanation of why the rite of circumcision was necessary is given in verses 4-7; Good News Translation has endeavored to rearrange the material in verses 4-6 for ease of understanding. The Hebrew expression “the men of war” (Revised Standard Version) in verses 4, 6 means males twenty years and older who were eligible for military duty. All those male adults had died during the forty years spent in going from Egypt to Canaan, and the new male generation now had to be circumcised.

Although Good News Translation restructuring of verses 4-6 does make the understanding of the text somewhat easier, certain difficulties still exist. For example, the first sentence begins with a temporal clause that describes an event which took place subsequent to the action of the main clause. This problem is easily solved by inverting the two clauses: “All the Israelite men and boys were circumcised before the people of Israel left Egypt.” The next sentence can then begin “However, they did not circumcise any of the baby boys who were born during the forty years that the people spent crossing the desert.”

The next sentence is highly complex, and some restructuring may be necessary. For example:

• Also, by the end of that time all the men who were of fighting age when they left Egypt had died. They had disobeyed the LORD, and the LORD had sworn that he would not let them see the rich and fertile land that he had promised their ancestors. Or, one may shift to direct discourse: “They had not obeyed the LORD, and so the LORD had sworn, ‘You will not see the rich and fertile land that I promised your ancestors.’ ”

Just as he had sworn: Numbers 14.28-35 reports the Lord’s vow not to allow any male Israelite over twenty years of age to enter Canaan; all of them except Caleb and Joshua would die during the wanderings in the wilderness, and only their children would enter the promised land.

The rich and fertile land (Revised Standard Version “a land flowing with milk and honey”) is a set phrase to describe Canaan (see Exo 3.8; Num 14.8) as opposed to the wilderness where the Israelites had wandered for forty years. A number of translations maintain the Hebraism. This may be an effective device in cultures where the idiom has already become a part of the active vocabulary of the majority of speakers. However, this would certainly not be the case for many languages. In America, for example, church people and people who know certain biblical metaphors through English literature might understand the meaning, but it would otherwise be unclear for the average reader. On the other hand, a number of languages will have their own metaphors which will very effectively carry the meaning of the biblical expression.

He had promised their ancestors represents the Hebrew “The LORD had promised their ancestors (fathers) to give to us.” Here “us” refers to the generation of the writer of the account and the people of his time, who live many years after these historic events. He sees Israel in his own time as the recipients of God’s promise to the ancestors. In order to include the meaning of “us” of the Hebrew text, one may translate:

• The LORD had promised our ancestors that he would give this land to them, and to us, their descendants. But these men who left Egypt did not obey the LORD, and so the LORD said to them, “You will never live in the land which I promised your ancestors….”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .