Gilgal

Biblical Text

Gilgal first receives significant attention in the book of Joshua. Israel crossed the Jordan River on the tenth day of the first month. The people encamped at Gilgal, on the eastern border of Jericho, and there set up the twelve stones they had taken from the river (Joshua 4:19-20). These stones served as a memorial to teach future generations that God had dried up the Jordan.

The generation born in the wilderness was circumcised at this place. God then declared, "This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you," and the text explains that for this reason the place was called Gilgal (Joshua 5:2-9). Israel kept the Passover at Gilgal, and on the following day the manna ceased (Joshua 5:10-12). Gilgal thereafter served as the main camp during the conquest of Canaan. It was at Gilgal that the Gibeonites came to Joshua (Joshua 9:6) and that Caleb requested Hebron (Joshua 14:6).

In Judges, the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim (Judges 2:1). Ehud turned back from "the quarries that were by Gilgal" and killed Eglon, king of Moab (Judges 3:19, 26). Because the Hebrew word can also mean idols or carved stones, translations render it differently.

In 1 Samuel, Gilgal was one of the places on Samuel's annual circuit (1 Samuel 7:16). Saul was made king there (1 Samuel 11:14-15). Yet Gilgal was also where Saul offered the burnt offering without waiting for Samuel (1 Samuel 13:8-14) and where, after the war against the Amalekites, he heard the pronouncement that God had rejected him (1 Samuel 15:12-33). After Absalom's rebellion ended, the men of Judah came to Gilgal to meet David on his return (2 Samuel 19:15).

Background

Gilgal appears to have been located in the plain of Jericho in the Jordan Valley, but its exact site has not been confirmed archaeologically. Scholars are also divided over whether the Gilgal from which Elijah and Elisha set out (2 Kings 2:1) and the Gilgal where Elisha stayed (2 Kings 4:38) are the same as Joshua's Gilgal, because 2 Kings 2 says that they "went down" from Gilgal to Bethel. The Hebrew name Gilgal is commonly interpreted as "circle of stones," and the text connects the name with a verb meaning "to roll."

Gilgal in the Prophets

Prophets of the monarchic period criticized Gilgal as a place of merely formal sacrifice. Hosea declared, "All their wickedness is in Gilgal" (Hosea 9:15; see also 4:15; 12:11). Amos warned, "At Gilgal multiply transgression," and "Gilgal shall surely go into captivity" (Amos 4:4; 5:5). Micah, by contrast, refers to Gilgal as evidence of God's saving acts, calling the people to remember what happened "from Shittim unto Gilgal" (Micah 6:5).

Interpretation and Issues

The place name Gilgal does not appear in the New Testament. Some interpreters read the crossing of the Jordan and the circumcision at Gilgal in connection with baptism. This is a typological interpretation (one that sees Old Testament events as foreshadowings of the New Testament) that draws on Colossians 2:11-12, which mentions circumcision and baptism together. The biblical text itself, however, does not directly link the two.

In the Korean Church

In Korean church preaching, Gilgal frequently appears in exhortations such as "Return to Gilgal." In this usage Gilgal symbolizes the starting point of faith, a place for remembering God's grace, and the recovery of one's first devotion. Such applications belong to homiletical interpretation rather than to the statements of the text itself.