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Joshua 5

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1 And it was, as all the kings of the Amorite who were across the Jordan toward the sea, and all the kings of the Canaanite who were by the sea, heard that Jehovah had dried·​·up the waters of the Jordan from before the sons of Israel, until we* had crossed·​·over; that their heart melted, and their spirit was not in them any·​·more on·​·account·​·of the sons of Israel.

2 At that time Jehovah said to Joshua, Make for thyself swords of rock*, and return to circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.

3 And Joshua made for himself swords of rock, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

4 And this is the reason that Joshua did circumcise: all the people that came·​·out from Egypt, that were males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness in the way, when they came·​·forth out·​·of Egypt.

5 For all the people who came·​·out were circumcised; but all the people born in the wilderness, in the way when they came·​·out from Egypt, had not been circumcised.

6 For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who went·​·out from Egypt, were entirely consumed, who obeyed not the voice of Jehovah; to whom Jehovah promised that He would not show them the land which Jehovah had promised to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

7 And their sons whom He raised·​·up in their stead, them did Joshua circumcise, for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them in the way.

8 And it was, when they had finished circumcising all the nation, that they sat·​·down in their places* in the camp until they were revived.

9 And Jehovah said to Joshua, This day have I rolled·​·away the reproach of Egypt from upon you. And he called the name of that place Gilgal, even·​·to This day.

10 And the sons of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and they made the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening in the desert of Jericho.

11 And they ate from the crop of the land on the morrow of the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain in this same day.

12 And the manna ceased on the morrow, when they had eaten of the crop of the land; and there was no manna for the sons of Israel any·​·more, but they ate of the increase of the land of Canaan in that year.

13 And it was, when Joshua was at Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and saw, and behold, a Man standing in·​·front·​·of him, and His sword drawn in His hand; and Joshua went to Him and said to Him, Art Thou for us or for our adversaries?

14 And He said, No; for I, the Commander of the army of Jehovah, have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped Him, and said to Him, What speaks my Lord to His servant?

15 And the Commander of the army of Jehovah said to Joshua, Shake·​·off thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place on which thou standest, it is holy. And Joshua did so.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Time

  

Time is an aspect of the physical world, but it is not an aspect of the spiritual world. The same is true of space: There is no space in heaven. This is hard for us to grasp or even visualize, because we live in physical bodies with physical senses that are filled with physical elements existing in time and space. Our minds are schooled and patterned in terms of time and space, and have no reference point to imagine a reality without them. Consider how you think for a second. In your mind you can immediately be in your past or in some speculative future; in your mind you can circle the globe seeing other lands and faraway friends, or even zoom instantly to the most distant stars. Such imaginings are insubstantial, of course, but if we could make them real we would be getting close to what spiritual reality is like. Indeed, the mind is like a spiritual organ, which may be why physicians and philosophers have had such a hard time juxtaposing its functions to those of the brain. What this means in the Bible is that descriptions of time -- hours, days, weeks, months, years and even simply the word "time" itself -- represent spiritual states, and the passing of time represents the change of spiritual states. Again, we can see this a little bit within our minds. If we imagine talking to one friend then talking to another, it feels like going from one place to another, even though we're not moving. The same is true if we picture a moment from childhood and then imagine something in the future; it feels like a movement through time even though it's instantaneous. Changing our state of mind feels like a physical change in space and time. The Bible simply reverses that, with marking points in space and time representing particular states of mind.