Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
declaration of the perfect restoration of the covenant, and a pledge that the Lord
would now give them the land of Canaan for their inheritance.
From this occurrence the place where the Israelites were encamped received the name
of Gilgal , viz., "rolling away," from gaalal (OT:1556), to roll. This explanation and
derivation of the name is not to be pronounced incorrect and unhistorical, simply
because it merely preserves the subordinate idea of rolling, instead of the fuller idea
of the rolling away of reproach. For the intention was not to form a word which
should comprehend the whole affair with exhaustive minuteness, but simply to invent
a striking name which should recall the occurrence, like the name Tomi , of which
Ovid gives the following explanation: Inde Tomos dictus locus est quia fertur in illo
membra soror fratris consecuisse sui ( Trist. iii. 9, 33). Knobel is wrong in
maintaining that the name should be explained in a different way, and that this Gilgal
is the same as Geliloth (circles) in Josh 18:17 (see the explanation given at ch. 15:7).
The word gilgal , formed from gll , to roll, signifies primarily rolling, then a wheel
(Isa 28:28); and if by possibility it signifies orbis also, like gaaliyl (OT:1550), this is
neither the original nor the only meaning of the word. According to Josephus (Ant. v.
1, 4), Israel encamped fifty stadia, i.e., two hours and a half, from the Jordan, and ten
stadia, or half an hour, from Jericho-that is to say, in the plain or steppe between
Jericho and the Jordan, in an uninhabited and uncultivated spot, which received the
name of Gilgal for the first time, as the place where the Israelites were encamped. No
town or village ever existed there, either at the period in question or at any later time.
The only other places in which this Gilgal can be shown to be evidently referred to,
are Mic 6:5 and 2 Sam 19:6,41; and the statement made by Eusebius in the Onom. s.
v. Galgala , dei'knutai ho to'pos e'reemos hoos hiero's threeskeuo'menos , which
Jerome paraphrases thus, "Even to the present day a deserted place is pointed out at
the second mile from Jericho, which is held in amazing reverence by the inhabitants
of that region," by no means proves the existence of a town or village there in the
time of the Israelites. Consequently it is not to be wondered at, that in spite of
repeated search, Robinson has not been able to discover any remains of Gilgal to the
east of Jericho, or to meet with any Arab who could tell him of such a name in this
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