Joshua 4:19-24

Erection of the Monument at Gilgal

19. the tenth day of the first month Notice the exactness of the narrative. The first month is elsewhere called Abib, i.e. "the month of green ears" (Exodus 13:4; Exodus 23:15; Deuteronomy 16:1), and subsequently "Nisan" (Nehemiah 2:1; Esther 3:7).

encamped The site was doubtless fortified by Joshua "as a frontier fortress, such as the Greeks under the name of epitichisma, and the Romans under the name of colonia, always planted as their advanced posts in a hostile country, such as at Kufa the Arab conquerors founded before the building of Bagdad, and at Fostal before the building of Cairo." Stanley's Lectures, p. 233.

in Gilgal situated apparently on a hillock or rising ground in the Arboth-Jericho, or, as it is rendered in our Version, "the plains of Jericho," the more level district of the "Ghôr" which lay between the town and the river. We find Gilgal mentioned again, (a) in the time of Saul (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:8), and (b) some sixty years later in the history of David's return to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 19:15). The name is here mentioned by anticipation, Joshua 5:9.