History Globe

town or village

Gilgal

Open on the map →

Events

  1. c. 1050 BCSaul is made king at Gilgal

History

Gilgal was the first camp of Israel west of the Jordan, set by the Book of Joshua "in the east border of Jericho". The name is usually taken to mean a circle, perhaps of stones. Its site has not been found. Proposals in the plain between Jericho and the Jordan include Khirbet el-Mefjir, where the map places it, and Khirbet en-Nitla, dug in 1950; neither has settled the question. Other places in the Bible bear the same name, and the Gilgal from which Elijah and Elisha set out is often sought in the hills near Bethel.

Here, according to Joshua, the people set up twelve stones taken from the bed of the Jordan, the men born in the wilderness were circumcised, and the LORD said, "This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you"; the Bible links the name to this rolling away. Israel kept the Passover at Gilgal, and the manna ceased. The camp remained there during the conquest: the Gibeonites came to it to make a league, and Caleb asked Joshua there for his inheritance. Josephus explains the name as "liberty".

In the time of the judges the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and Ehud turned back "from the quarries that were by Gilgal" before he killed Eglon. Samuel went in circuit to Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpeh to judge Israel. At Gilgal the people made Saul king before the LORD; there Saul offered the burnt offering without waiting for Samuel, and there Samuel hewed Agag in pieces. Judah came to Gilgal to bring David back over the Jordan after Absalom's revolt.

In the eighth century BC Hosea and Amos condemned the sacrifices of Gilgal: "All their wickedness is in Gilgal". The place was still remembered in Roman times. Josephus puts Israel's first camp fifty furlongs on from the Jordan and ten from Jericho. In the early fourth century Eusebius knew it as a deserted place held sacred by the people of the region, and wrote that the stones brought up from the Jordan were shown at the second mile from Jericho.

Scripture: Josh 4:19–20; Josh 5:2–12; Josh 9:6; Josh 10:6; Josh 14:6; Judg 2:1; Judg 3:19; 1 Sam 7:16; 1 Sam 11:14–15; 1 Sam 13:8–14; 1 Sam 15:33; 2 Sam 19:15; 2 Kgs 2:1; Hos 4:15; Hos 9:15; Hos 12:11; Amos 4:4; Amos 5:5

Sources

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (33)

Josh 4:19
And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.
Josh 4:20
And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.
Josh 5:9
And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.
Josh 5:10
And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
Josh 9:6
And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us.
Josh 10:6
And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.
Josh 10:7
So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour.
Josh 10:9
Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.
Josh 10:15
And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.
Josh 10:43
And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.
Josh 14:6
Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea.
Judg 2:1
And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
Judg 3:19
But he himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king: who said, Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him.
1 Sam 7:16
And he went from year to year in circuit to Beth-el, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places.
1 Sam 10:8
And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings: seven days shalt thou tarry, till I come to thee, and shew thee what thou shalt do.
1 Sam 11:14
Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
1 Sam 11:15
And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
1 Sam 13:4
And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel also was had in abomination with the Philistines. And the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal.
1 Sam 13:7
And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
1 Sam 13:8
And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.
1 Sam 13:12
Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the LORD: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.
1 Sam 13:15
And Samuel arose, and gat him up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him, about six hundred men.
1 Sam 15:12
And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
1 Sam 15:21
But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
1 Sam 15:33
And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
2 Sam 19:15
So the king returned, and came to Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to conduct the king over Jordan.
2 Sam 19:40
Then the king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him: and all the people of Judah conducted the king, and also half the people of Israel.
Hos 4:15
Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.
Hos 9:15
All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.
Hos 12:11
Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

3 more on the map

King James Version

Tours through this place