Joshua 4:19 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 19. And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day, &c.— On the fifteenth of this same month the people had departed from Egypt; so that forty years, wanting five days, had elapsed from the first of these events to the second. Gilgal was situate between Jordan and Jericho, ten furlongs from the city, and fifty from the river, according to Josephus's calculation. We shall see in the subsequent chapter, ver. 9 what occasioned the giving the name of Gilgal to this first encampment of the Israelites in the land of Canaan, and consequently to the city afterwards built there. Joshua had there his camp, or, as we now express it, his quarters, during all the time that the war lasted, and till the division of the country among the tribes. There the Israelites were circumcised; there they celebrated, for the first time, in the land of Canaan, the passover; and there the tabernacle was fixed and erected, till, Palestine being subdued by the victorious arms of the Hebrews, they placed it at Shilo. Gilgal, however, always continued to be a town of importance, as we may see from divers passages of Scripture, particularly Judges 2:1. 1 Samuel 11:14-15; 1 Samuel 13:12; 1 Samuel 13:23.