Neville Goddard on Joshua 5:2-8 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Joshua 5 in context

Scripture Focus

2At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.

3And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

4And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.

5Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.

6For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

7And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.

8And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole.

Joshua 5:2-8

Biblical Context

God tells Joshua to circumcise again the Israelites, marking covenant renewal. The older generation dies in the wilderness for disobedience, and the new generation is kept in the camp until they are whole.

Neville's Inner Vision

Within this scene, circumcision is not the blade’s work on flesh but a making-awake of the mind. The LORD tells Joshua to circumcise again the children of Israel—the old skin of fear and old self-identities shed so a nation can stride into its promised land with a new alignment to I AM awareness. The wilderness years symbolize a state of consciousness where the voice is ignored and hope dies; their fathers failed to trust the voice and thus did not enter the land. Now the new generation—born in the wilderness—must be re-ruled by a higher agreement. When Joshua performs the rite, it marks a spiritual pruning: inherited habits that block the voice are cut away, and the people become fit to possess their internal abundance. They dwell in the camp until the wound is whole, a pause that mirrors inner healing before action. The entrance into milk-and-honey is not a distant border but a state you enter when your inner covenant is kept: a purified self-state, ready to inhabit and create the land within.

Practice This Now

Imaginatively, assume you are already whole, and revise your self-concept to align with a higher covenant. Then, until it feels real, dwell in the sensation of that wholeness in your chest and mind.