Gilgal

Gilgal is the first encampment of the Jordan-crossed people on the east border of Jericho, the place where Yahweh rolls away the reproach of Egypt and gives the site its name, and the place to which the conquest narrative repeatedly returns. After the conquest it serves as a landmark by which other sites are oriented, as a circuit-stop in Samuel's judgeship, as the stage of Saul's coronation and rejection, as the rallying-point for Judah's return of David over the Jordan, as a station on Elisha's prophet-school circuit, and finally — in Hosea and Amos — as a corrupt worship-site warned against and condemned. The Bible also names a Gilgal as a Deuteronomic geographical landmark west of the Jordan.

The First Encampment and the Twelve Stones

The people emerge from the Jordan and pitch camp at Gilgal on a fixed date and bearing: "the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the east border of Jericho" (Jos 4:19). Joshua sets the twelve Jordan-stones at the camp itself, with explicit instruction that the stones be a sign for later generations: "those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal" (Jos 4:20), so that "when your⁺ sons ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What do these stones mean?" (Jos 4:21) the answer is the dry-ground crossing — "Israel came over this Jordan on dry land" (Jos 4:22) — pointed back to the parallel act at the Red Sea, "that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of Yahweh, that it is mighty; that you⁺ may fear Yahweh your⁺ God forever" (Jos 4:23-24).

Circumcision, Passover, and the End of the Manna

At Gilgal the wilderness generation's deferred sign is renewed. Yahweh tells Joshua, "Make for yourself knives of flint, and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time" (Jos 5:2), and Joshua "circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins" (Jos 5:3) because the men of war who came out of Egypt had died in the wilderness and "their sons, whom he raised up in their stead, Joshua circumcised them: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way" (Jos 5:7). The camp waits until the new generation is whole (Jos 5:8). The site's name is then fixed by Yahweh's own speech: "This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you⁺. Therefore the name of that place was called Gilgal, to this day" (Jos 5:9).

In the same camp Israel keeps its first Passover in the land: "the sons of Israel encamped in Gilgal; and they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho" (Jos 5:10). The next day they eat "of the produce of the land … unleavened cakes and parched grain, in the very same day" (Jos 5:11), and "the manna ceased on the next day, after they had eaten of the produce of the land" (Jos 5:12).

The Camp of the Conquest

Through the conquest narrative Gilgal is the camp Joshua keeps returning to. The Gibeonites come "to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal" with their counterfeit far-country plea (Jos 9:6). When the kings of the Amorites confederate, "the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, Do not slack your hand from your slaves; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us" (Jos 10:6), and after the southern campaign "Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal" (Jos 10:43). When inheritances are assigned, "the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal" (Jos 14:6), and Caleb makes there his Kadesh-barnea claim. Earlier still, Moses' own geography places Gilgal as a fixed reference-point for the blessing-and-curse mounts: "in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, across from Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh" (De 11:30).

Quarries by Gilgal — Ehud and Eglon

In the period of the judges Gilgal serves as the locator for an assassination. Israel has served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years (Jud 3:14) when Yahweh raises up Ehud, who "made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length" (Jud 3:16) and presented Moab's tribute to the very-fat king (Jud 3:17). After the tribute-bearers were sent away, the pivot is Gilgal: "he himself turned back from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret message to you, O king. And he said, Keep silent. And all who stood by him went out from him" (Jud 3:19). Inside the cool upper room, Ehud announces "I have a message from God to you" (Jud 3:20), thrusts in the sword so that "the handle also went in after the blade; and the fat closed on the blade" (Jud 3:22), locks the doors and escapes "beyond the quarries … to Seirah" (Jud 3:26). The Gilgal-quarries fix the geography of the deliverance.

Samuel's Circuit and Saul's Coronation

Gilgal returns under Samuel as one of three judgment-seats. Samuel "went from year to year in circuit to Beth-el and Gilgal, and Mizpah; and he judged Israel in all those places" (1Sa 7:16). At the close of Saul's first deliverance, the assembly is summoned there: "all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before Yahweh in Gilgal; and there they offered sacrifices of peace-offerings before Yahweh; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly" (1Sa 11:15). Samuel's earlier instruction had already named Gilgal as the appointed sanctuary-site for a seven-day royal wait: "you will go down before me to Gilgal; and, look, I will come down to you, to offer burnt-offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace-offerings: seven days you will tarry, until I come to you, and show you what you will do" (1Sa 10:8).

Saul's Rejection at Gilgal

The same site is then the stage of Saul's first formal failure. With the Philistines massed at Michmash, "the people had gathered together after Saul at Gilgal" (1Sa 13:4), but as the troops scatter, "Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling" (1Sa 13:7). Saul keeps the seven-day count — "he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel [had appointed]" (1Sa 13:8) — but, when Samuel does not come within the appointed days and the people scatter, Saul says, "Now will the Philistines come down on me to Gilgal, and I haven't entreated the favor of Yahweh: I forced myself therefore, and offered the burnt-offering" (1Sa 13:12). Samuel's verdict is rendered on the spot: "You have done foolishly; you haven't kept [the Speech of] Yahweh your God, which he commanded you: for now Yahweh would have established your kingdom on Israel forever. But now your kingdom will not continue: Yahweh has sought himself a man after his own heart" (1Sa 13:13-14). Samuel "arose, and went up from Gilgal" (1Sa 13:15).

The Amalekite-spoil episode finishes the Gilgal-judgment. After the campaign Saul "went down to Gilgal" (1Sa 15:12), where Samuel finds him with the sheep and oxen; the people, Saul says, "took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal" (1Sa 15:21). Samuel answers, "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of fortune-telling, and stubbornness is as idolatry and talismans. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has also rejected you from being king" (1Sa 15:22-23). The execution of Agag is itself sited at Gilgal: "Samuel cut Agag in pieces before Yahweh in Gilgal" (1Sa 15:33).

David's Return at Gilgal

Years later Gilgal is again the assembly-point at which a king crosses the Jordan into the land. After the defeat of Absalom, the men of Judah "sent to the king, [saying,] Return, you and all your slaves" (2Sa 19:14), and "Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Jordan" (2Sa 19:15). The crossing happens at the same site: "the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went over with him: and all the people of Judah brought the king over, and also half the people of Israel" (2Sa 19:40), with Israel's complaint immediately after that Judah had "stolen" the king and "brought the king, and his household, over the Jordan" (2Sa 19:41-43).

The Sons of the Prophets at Gilgal

Under Elisha, Gilgal hosts a prophet-school. "Elisha came again to Gilgal. And there was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his attendant, Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets" (2Ki 4:38). One man's herb-gathering produces "wild gourds his lap full" shred into the pot (2Ki 4:39), and as the prophets eat they cry out, "O man of God, there is death in the pot" (2Ki 4:40). Gilgal is the site Elisha returns to, the school-community gathered there, and the kitchen at which the death-in-the-pot miracle is staged.

Gilgal in Hosea and Amos

The prophets close the dossier with verdicts. Hosea forbids the pilgrimage from Judah: "Though you, Israel, are whoring, yet don't let Judah offend; and don't come⁺ to Gilgal, neither go⁺ up to Beth-aven, nor swear, As Yahweh lives" (Ho 4:15). The judgment is named outright: "All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house" (Ho 9:15). And the worship is summarized: "in Gilgal they sacrifice bullocks; yes, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the field" (Ho 12:11).

Amos answers in the same register. The sarcastic summons: "Come to Beth-el, and transgress; to Gilgal, [and] multiply transgression; and bring your⁺ sacrifices every morning, [and] your⁺ tithes every three days" (Am 4:4). And the counter-command: "don't seek Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and don't pass to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal will surely go into captivity, and Beth-el will come to nothing" (Am 5:5). The site of the rolled-away reproach has become, in the prophets' indictment, the paired apostate cult-station with Beth-el — and the place from which the people will be carried into exile.