At that time Yahweh said to Joshua, Make you flint knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.
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).