Joshua made himself flint knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.
Pink observed here that good military strategy would have demanded that Joshua move quickly to take advantage of the panic that had spread with the news of their crossing Jordan, adding that, "God's people follow not the ways nor employ the devices of the world."[14]  That truth surely appears here in the circumcision of the people, carrying with it the inevitable remembrance of how Simeon and Levi had taken advantage of the Shechemites in just such a situation  (Genesis 34:18-30).