Joshua 5:4-6

New Catholic Bible

⁴ This is the reason why Joshua had to perform this circumcision. All of the men who had come out of Egypt, all of the fighting men, had died in the wilderness on their way from Egypt. ⁵ All of the men who had come out had been circumcised, but all of those who had been born in the wilderness on the way from Egypt had not been circumcised. ⁶ The Israelites had spent forty years in the wilderness until all of the fighting men who had come out of Egypt and who had not obeyed the command of the Lord had died. The Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had promised to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.