Gilgal #29

Gilgal was the first place Israel camped in Canaan after crossing the Jordan River, on the eastern border of Jericho (Joshua 4:19). The name is related to a Hebrew word meaning “to roll” or “a circle,” and the book of Joshua connects it to an event at the site: the Lord says that today he has “rolled away the reproach of Egypt” from Israel, and so the place is called Gilgal to this day (Joshua 5:9). The Bible knows more than one place with this name, but the Gilgal near Jericho is the best known.

Biblical Significance

At Gilgal, Joshua sets up the twelve stones taken from the middle of the Jordan, one for each tribe, as a memorial so that future children would ask what they meant and be told how the Lord dried up the river before Israel (Joshua 4:19-24). There the men born in the wilderness, who had not been circumcised, are circumcised, and Israel keeps the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month. The day after, they eat the produce of the land, and the manna stops (Joshua 5:2-12).

Gilgal serves as Israel’s base camp for the early conquest. When the Gibeonites are threatened by five Amorite kings, they send word to Joshua at Gilgal, and he marches up all night to relieve them (Joshua 9:6; 10:6-9). Joshua returns to camp there after his campaigns (Joshua 10:15, 43).

In the days of Samuel, Gilgal was one of the places on his yearly circuit as judge (1 Samuel 7:16). After Saul’s victory over the Ammonites, the people go to Gilgal to confirm him as king and offer peace offerings (1 Samuel 11:14-15). It is also where Saul, impatient waiting for Samuel, offers the burnt offering himself, and hears that his kingdom will not continue (1 Samuel 13:7-14). After Saul spares King Agag and the best of the livestock, Samuel rebukes him and puts Agag to death at Gilgal (1 Samuel 15:12-33). Later prophets attack the worship practiced at a Gilgal as empty ritual (Hosea 4:15; Amos 4:4; 5:5).

Today

The precise location of Gilgal is unknown. Early Christian writers, including Eusebius in the fourth century, place it a short distance east of Jericho, and several sites in the plain there have been proposed, among them Khirbet en-Nitla, Khirbet el-Mefjir, and Tell Jiljulieh. None has been proved, and later occupation of the area has complicated the search.

Because Scripture mentions other places called Gilgal, including one in the hill country north of Bethel (2 Kings 2:1-2), care is needed in reading each passage. In popular usage, Gilgal is remembered mostly for the twelve stones, a lasting biblical symbol of remembering God’s deliverance.