Israel's entry into the land under Joshua did not require an immediate Wavesheaf offering. The phrase "when you come into the land" appears fifteen times and is a general instruction for Israel's life in the land, not a command to act the moment they cross the Jordan. It does not stand alone or override God's other requirements. Deuteronomy 26 shows this: the firstfruits offering required that Israel possess and dwell in the land, bring the offering to the place where God made His name abide, which came only after the land was at rest, and give it to the priest "in those days," a span of future time. Exodus 12 shows the same principle with Passover. Joshua circumcised the men first because he knew the instruction did not stand apart from God's other commands. Numbers 15's heave offering would have required reaping, threshing, winnowing, and grinding, which would have meant doing all that labor on a holy day. Moreover, God accepts only offerings from grain the Israelites themselves sowed, not grain from a foreigner's hand. In Joshua 5 the people ate the land's produce, which was permissible, but could not offer it. So the same Israelites could not have offered the Pentecost loaves that first year either. Joshua 5 therefore gives no support for starting the harvest count on a holy day. The episode tests whether Israel honors God's holiness, as Cain's rejected offering and Nadab and Abihu's profane fire also show.

Israel crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and the males born in the wilderness were then circumcised. Joshua 5:10-11 says only that they ate the land's produce the day after Passover; it records no altar, priest, offerings, harvest, or waving of the sheaf. Since Israel was a holy people, God could not accept a wavesheaf of Canaanite-grown grain, because Exodus 23:16 requires firstfruits of what Israel itself had sown, and Leviticus 22:25 forbids offerings from a foreigner's hand. The Israelites ate that grain freely because Gentiles had sown it, and they probably also had provisions gathered before the crossing (Joshua 1:11). Deuteronomy 12 explains why no normal worship occurred: once in the land, Israel could sacrifice only at one central sanctuary of God's choosing. That sanctuary was not set up until the land had rest, seven years after the crossing, when the Tabernacle was erected at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1). Until then, the work of conquest took priority, done by a circumcised people. The altar of Joshua 8:30 was a God-commanded covenant-renewal exception, and the eastern tribes' altar in Joshua 22 was only a memorial. Joshua 5 therefore cannot justify altering the count to Pentecost.