Joshua 5:6

6. Forty years in the wilderness This verse assigns the reason why circumcision had not been performed, namely, their disobedience and punishment. As the sentence of exclusion from the favour of Jehovah had now expired, the nation is again admitted to the privilege of using the sign of his covenant. While in exile they were the objects of his care, and even of his supernatural providence, but not of his approval, just as sinners under the Gospel dispensation enjoy the bounty of God, but not the covenant of his pardoning grace.

Till all the people… were consumed The word for people is that which is always used to designate a heathen nation, a Gentile race, in distinction from the peculiar people, Israel. This confirms the explanation that Israel was excluded from covenant relations during the forty years’ wandering.

The Lord sware that he would not show them the land That is, cause them to see, and hence to enter and enjoy, the land.

A land that floweth with milk and honey This phrase represents the great fertility and loveliness of the Land of Promise; it was a land rich in grass for herds, hence there was an abundance of milk; it was profuse in flowers, hence bees and wild honey were very plentiful, (Judges 14:8; Matthew 3:4,) and they still are found, in spite of the lack of cultivation and the desolation of Palestine. Milk and its various products constituted the chief sustenance of the ancient Hebrews. In Palestine the bees do actually deposit honey in the holes of the rocks in so great quantities that it flows out and is gathered in vessels placed beneath.