V.

GILGAL.

"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. v. 10.

V.

GILGAL.

GILGAL was the spot in which the camp of Israel was pitched after the passage of the Jordan. It was distant about six miles from that river, and about one and a half from Jericho. There does not appear to have been any town or settlement at the place before Israel rested there; but to it, as to a convenient place on the plains of Jericho, the people were led by the Divine direction. Gilgal (i. e., rolling) was the name given to it in connection with the renewal of the rite of circumcision. day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." (Verse 9.)

"This

This encampment at Gilgal was marked by two very important transactions. One, already alluded to, was the renewal of the rite of circumcision, and the other was the celebration of the Passover.

When God chose Abraham and called him from his country, He gave to him, about a year before the birth of Isaac, the ordinance of circumcision, as the sign of the covenant into which the patriarch and his posterity were

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During the

taken. That ordinance had been regularly observed until the time of the Exodus: "all the people that came out were circumcised," (verse 5.) forty years' sojourn in the wilderness the rite had been neglected, from what cause does not appear; so that there was a whole generation, some of whom were grown up, while others were growing, who had never been outwardly admitted to the covenant which God had made: with Abraham, as far as the sign was concerned. Now, however, there were two great reasons for performing the rite; one, that Canaan was the covenant land and that those who were to take possession of it must fulfil the requirements of the covenant; the other, that the Passover was to be celebrated, and, according to the original institution, no uncircumcised person could eat of it. (See Exod. xii. 48.)

The ceremony of circumcision being completed, preparation was next made for observing the great feast of the Passover, which was kept as recorded in the chapter before us. It is generally supposed that this was the third Passover celebrated since the institution of the feast. The first was held in Egypt, immediately before the departure of Israel; the second at Sinai in the following year (Numbers ix. 1, 2): subsequently to which, during the journeyings in the wilderness, the observance of the feast was suspended. The

correctness of this opinion may be questioned.

It

is true that the rising generation of Israel was not circumcised; but during the sojournings in the wilderness, though the number of those who left Egypt was constantly decreasing, there were always some who had been admitted to the covenant, and who, therefore, would keep the feast. And can we suppose that Moses and Aaron, and other godly men among them, would have allowed so solemn an injunction of the Lord to pass into contempt and neglect to such an extent that it should have been observed only once in forty years? Nor does the fact that uncircumcised persons might not eat of the Passover really affect the case. For although God had expressly said that the uncircumcised person should be cut off from His people, He was, nevertheless, pleased to overlook this strict declaration during the journey in the wilderness. Why should He then not have relaxed the other statute, "no uncircumcised person shall eat of the Passover"? And, surely, the fair inference is that Israel would keep up the remembrance of their deliverance, fresh as they were from Egypt and constantly reminded as they were of that deliverance by Moses. The passage in the book of Amos (v. 25.) which is sometimes quoted to show the disuse of the Passover would as easily prove that Israel offered no worship at