Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
southern mountains. So again we are not informed in what follows (ch. 9ff.) in which
direction Joshua and the people went after these solemnities at Ebal and Gerizim
were over. It is certainly not stated that he went back to Gilgal in the Jordan valley,
and pitched his tent again on the old site.
No doubt we find Gilgal still mentioned as the encampment of Israel, not only in Josh
9:6; 10:6,9,15,43, but even after the defeat and subjugation of the Canaanites in the
south and north, when a commencement was made to distribute the land (Josh 14:6).
But when it is asked whether this Gilgal was the place of encampment on the east of
Jericho, which received its name from the circumcision of the whole nation which
took place there, or the town of Gilgal by the side of the terebinths of Moreh, which
is mentioned in Deut 11:30, and by which Moses defines the situation of Gerizim and
Ebal, this question cannot be answered unhesitatingly according to the traditional
view, viz., in favour of the encampment in the Jordan valley. For when not only the
army, but all the people with their wives and children, had once proceeded from the
Jordan valley to the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal, we cannot imagine any reason
why Joshua should go back again to the plain of Jericho, that is to say, to the extreme
corner of Canaan on the east, for the purpose of making that the base of his
operations for the conquest and extermination of the Canaanites. And there is just as
much improbability in the assumption, that after Joshua had not only defeated the
kings of southern Canaan, who had allied themselves with Adonizedek of Jerusalem
in the battle fought at Gibeon (ch. 10), but had also overthrown the kings of northern
Canaan, who were allied with Jabin of Hazor at the waters of Merom above the Sea
of Galilee (ch. 11), he should return again to Gilgal in the Jordan valley, and there
quietly encamp with all the people, and commence the distribution of the land.
The only thing that could bring us to assent to such extremely improbable
assumptions, would be the fact that there was no other Gilgal in all Canaan than the
encampment to the east of Jericho, which received the name of Gilgal for the first
time from the Israelites themselves. But as the other Gilgal by the side of the
terebinths of Moreh-i.e., the present Jiljilia , which stands upon an eminence on the
south-west of Shiloh at about the same distance from Jerusalem as from Sichem-was
a well-known place even in Moses' days (Deut 11:30), and from its situation on a
lofty ridge, from which you can see the great lowlands and the sea towards the west,
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