What was the 'reproach of Egypt' referred to in Joshua 5:9?

Question

In Joshua chapter 5, after the Israelites had crossed the Jordan into the promised land, all the men of that generation were circumcised,

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day. - Joshua 5:9 NIV (emphasis added)

What specifically is 'the reproach of Egypt' referring to? Is there evidence that would favour the interpretation taken by the American Bible Society's CEV:

The Lord told Joshua, “It was a disgrace for my people to be slaves in Egypt, but now I have taken away that disgrace.” So the Israelites named the place Gilgal, and it still has that name. (emphasis added, cf. also ERV, EXB, GNT & NCV)

versus that of the NIRV:

Then the Lord spoke to Joshua. He said, “Today I have taken away from you the shame of being laughed at by Egypt.” That’s why the place where the men were circumcised has been called Gilgal to this very day. (emphais added)

or the TLB:

And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have ended your shame of not being circumcised.” So the place where this was done was called Gilgal (meaning, “to end”*), and is still called that today. (emphasis added)

With the 'rolling away' of 'the reproach' is there some underlying idiom or metaphor that is being used/referred to?

Answer 1

The phrase חֶרְפֵת מִצְרַיִם refers generally to the fact that some Jews up until that point had retained some Egyptian customs (see Ralbag to Joshua 5:9), but more specifically, it refers to the shame of the Israelites for having gone 40 years in the desert without having performed circumcision on the males, young and old. The mass circumcision that took place at Gilgal, therefore, was intended to disconnect the Jewish people from Egyptian idolatry and purify them to enter into the Land. See Abravanel at p. 38 and Malbim commentary to Joshua 5:9.

Rabbi Meir Goldwicht points out an interesting play on words there that includes numerology. he explains that Deuteromoy 10:22 tells us that 70 Jews went down to Egypt, whereas Genesis 46:26, tells us that only 66 went down to Egypt. Jewish tradition explains this by adding to the 66 Joseph and his sons and Yocheved, who tradition says was conceived on the way. So, the rabbi asks, why didn't the Torah just say the total and leave it at that. He cites an authority who explains that the word גלגל (which Joshua 5:9 tells us is where the mass circumcision occurred), meaning "wheel", has a numerical equivalent to 66. And that verse also says that G-d has "rolled away" (גַלוֹתִי) the reproach of Egypt. Pointing out that this same root also is a noun meaning diaspora (גלות), Rabbi Goldwicht says that when we “roll around” in galut, "one secret is key to our survival – to stay in the center of the wheel. If you venture out from the center, the centrifugal force hurls you outward. Therefore the Torah wishes to teach us that being in galut is להתגלגל , and someone who is rolling around must be very careful. Therefore we must be very careful to stay in the center and not around the edges. Therefore, it is so fitting that when Am Yisrael (the children of Israel) crossed the [Jordan] after 40 years in the desert, the first place they stayed was גלגל (Gilgal). In other words, גלגל (Gilgal) was the place where the גלות (the Galut) officially ended....Once we reach [the Land of Israel], the גלגל (rolling) of galut is stopped."

Answer 2

During the forty year wilderness wanderings, the Israelites who escaped Egypt were disobedient and therefore refused to circumcise their children (Joshua 5:5-6). After these children (the second generation of Israelites) finally crossed the Jordan River with Joshua, they "caused twelve stones to carry over" (literal rendering of the Hiphil causative of עָבַר in Joshua 4:8) to Gilgal while another twelve stones remained at the Jordan River (Joshua 4:9). In other words, the Israelites rolled twelve stones to Gilgal (or גִּלְגָּל, which means "wheel" or "rolling"), which correlated/corresponded to the twelve stones that had remained in the Jordan River. Thus the circumcision at Gilgal was in direct correlation to the crossing at the Jordan River because of the respective association of the two sets of twelve stones at both places, which connected both places together.

To put it another way, crossing the River Jordan into the "rest" of the Promised Land had removed (or "Gilgal'ed") the reproach of Egypt, which was the "iron furnace" of slavery for the Israelites (Deut 4:20). The circumcision was parallel to the circumcision of Abraham, whose inheritance at the time was Isaac (i.e., the Promised Seed of the Abrahamic Covenant). The inheritance in the Book of Joshua in the crossing of the Jordan River, on the other hand, was to receive the Promised Land of the Abrahamic Covenant.

So circumcision carries the connotation of leaving slavery / death and discovering freedom / life. (That is Abraham was once dead sexually, and later discovered life through circumcision; the Israelites who were either children in Egypt, or were born in the wilderness, later discovered freedom through circumcision, which was passage through the Jordan River.) Thus life and liberation now correlate to the "Gilgal" of the water of the River Jordan.

In the Christian New Testament, water baptism was how John the Baptist introduced the New Covenant at the Jordan River, whose stones would again rise in testimony against disobedient Israelites.

Matthew 3:7-9 (NASB)
⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; ⁹ and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham....” (emphasis added)

The stones were the testimony of the removal of reproach, which were laid in the Jordan River by Joshua. These stones hailed back to the circumcision at "Gilgal," where the reproach of slavery in Egypt was removed. In other words, the Pharisees were circumcised like the Israelites who had escaped Egypt, but the stones of the River Jordan (entrance into the Promised Land of the New Covenant) could remove the shame of the reproach of anyone willing to repent. Those who repented through baptism in the Jordan River -- unlike the Pharisees (or even the generation that had escaped Egypt) -- would be the true sons of Abraham.

In summary, "circumcision" in the Christian New Testament occurs when one crosses from slavery into freedom through the baptism of the living water of eternal life. (In Romans 2:28-29 the true Jew is not outwardly, but inwardly, that is, the person who receives the promises of Abraham by faith.) The parallel then is Gilgal, where the reproach of the old life was first removed, or "rolled away." That shame of the old life is slavery to sin, which is an "iron furnace" or place of hell.

Answer 3

For you to understand what the reproach of egypt Joshua 5:9 was talking about, you have to understand that the kingdom race or spiritual journey means going through the transcends of positive metamorphosis: GILGAL to BETHEL, BETHEL to JERICHO, JERICHO to JORDAN and across JORDAN. You also have to understand that when God told the LAW to take the Israelites from EGYPT and into the Promised Land, the LAW could not interpret this accurately but rather interpreted it literally by taking the Israelites from the literal country called Egypt to another physical country called Canaan; whereas what God meant was for the LAW to take the children of the kingdom from this earth to Eden, the third heaven and to do this, they must cross the two rivers in the mortal body of every child of the kingdom. The two rivers in every mortal are red blood and water. For the children of the kingdom to enter heaven thry must become immortal.

The LAW, being in the similitude of the mortal body did not understand that God spoke in similitudes.

Egypt is in the similitude of the terrestrial earth.

Israelites are in the similitude of the children of the kingdom in the whole earth.

The promised land is in the similitude of the Eden, the land promised Abraham (father Adam) and His children. This is why it is stressed as the land flowing with milk and honey.

Abraham means "father of many". The Abraham of the mankind race is father Adam.

The red sea is in the similitude of the the red blood in every mortal child of the kingdom while river Jordan is the water in every mortal child of the kingdom and these must be crossed, must be altered before we can get to the Promised Land, Eden.

What can alter, cross (drain) the red blood and later alter or cross or dry the water in us are divine revelations or eucharistic messages.

When divine revelations are assimilated into the spirit of a mortal child of the kingdom, they hatche zoe immortal cells in the mortal body and take the mortal body through the four transcends of positive metamorphosis: GILGAL to BETHEL, BETHEL to JERICHO, JERICHO to JORDAN and across JORDAN at the end of which the mortal body would have metamorphosed positively into the immortal body and this way, one can become BORN AGAIN without tasting death at all.

This is what Elijah,the great Prophet of Tishbe went through before he transfigured. 2 Kings 2.

EGYPT is anywhere in this terrestrial earth where these revelations are not raining including the Church where these revelations are not raining.

To access these revelations, once must leave EGYPT and come into GILGAL. GILGAL is where the foundational messages are thought. Where Christians are taught that God and Jesus Christ HIS PRE - EMINENCE is one and same person, where Christians are taught that the son of God is not Jesus Christ HIS PRE - EMINENCE but His Eminence, Adam. Where people are taught that death is not the route to HEAVEN and heaven is not a ghost world but a real and physical place where one enters in his spirit, soul and body. GILGAL is where Christians are taught that anyone who tastes death goes to the ghost world and awaits resurrection of the body that was buried before going to heaven as the body is needed. It is in GILGAL that Christians are taught that being born again is NOT in believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth that Jesus Christ HIS PRE - EMINENCE is Lord and that HE died for your sins and that being born again is NOT instant but a process - a due process which is the four transcends of positive metamorphosis. GILGAL is where the wrong mindset gotten from these false preachers are reprogrammed. GILGAL is where the wrong teachings gotten from EGYPT, gotten from these churches where these revelations are not raining are rolled away. GILGAL is where the reproach of egypt is rolled away.

For details, visit:https://thethirdelijah.wordpress.com/2016/05/19/zoe-supernatural-bio-processes/.