יהושע, פרק ה׳, פסוק ג׳

Upon entering the land, the Israelites participated in a mass circumcision as a practical step to renew their covenant with God before beginning the conquest. Joshua prepared the necessary knives to equip the people, rather than for his own use, and commanded the procedure to be carried out directly on a specific hill [ביאור שטיינזלץ, מצודת ציון, רד״ק, מצודת דוד].

A nationwide circumcision was required because an entire generation born during the desert wanderings remained uncircumcised. This delay was born out of a genuine threat to life. In the wilderness, the Israelites journeyed and set up camp strictly following the command of God, often with no prior warning. There was a constant fear that if a baby were circumcised, the nation might be ordered to travel on the infant's third day of recovery, a highly dangerous time to be moved. Because of this ongoing risk, their uncircumcised state also stopped the nation from offering the Passover sacrifice in the desert.

Now safely in the land, the people underwent the procedure and waited in their camp until they were fully healed. This period of rest offers a practical lesson that one should not set out on a journey before an injury has properly healed [רלב״ג]. The site of this massive event was subsequently named the Hill of Foreskins. While some commentators explain this simply as the location where the procedure took place [רלב״ג, רד״ק, מצודת דוד], a more visual approach suggests that the sheer number of foreskins removed from the vast crowd actually formed a physical hill on the landscape [רש״י, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

The careful execution of this event reflects Joshua's wisdom and organized leadership. He managed the process in clear stages. First, he attended to those who had never been circumcised, and their foreskins created the physical mound. Only after this did he address a second group of people who had been previously circumcised but whose procedure remained incomplete. He performed the final, completing step for them at the very hill that had just been formed [אלשיך].