Deuteronomy 11:30

11:30 Are they not across the Jordan River, ¹  toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal ²  near the oak ³  of Moreh?

Joshua 5:9

5:9 The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have taken away ⁴  the disgrace ⁵  of Egypt from you.” So that place is called Gilgal ⁶  even to this day.

Joshua 10:43

10:43 Then Joshua and all Israel returned to the camp at Gilgal.

¹ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

² sn Gilgal. From a Hebrew verb root גָלַל (galal, “to roll”) this place name means “circle” or “rolling,” a name given because God had “rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you” (Josh 5:9). It is perhaps to be identified with Khirbet el-Metjir, 1.2 mi (2 km) northeast of OT Jericho.

³ tc The MT plural “oaks” (אֵלוֹנֵי, ’eloney) should probably be altered (with many Greek texts) to the singular “oak” (אֵלוֹן, ’elon; cf. NRSV) in line with the only other occurrence of the phrase (Gen 12:6). The Syriac, Tg. Ps.-J. read mmrá, confusing this place with the “oaks of Mamre” near Hebron (Gen 13:18). Smr also appears to confuse “Moreh” with “Mamre” (reading mwr’, a combined form), adding the clarification mwl shkm (“near Shechem”) apparently to distinguish it from Mamre near Hebron.

⁴ tn Heb “rolled away.”

⁵ sn One might take the disgrace of Egypt as a reference to their uncircumcised condition (see Gen 34:14), but the generation that left Egypt was circumcised (see v. 5). It more likely refers to the disgrace they experienced in Egyptian slavery. When this new generation reached the promised land and renewed their covenantal commitment to the Lord by submitting to the rite of circumcision, the Lord’s deliverance of his people from slavery, which had begun with the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea, reached its climax. See T. C. Butler, Joshua (WBC), 59.

⁶ sn The name Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew verb “roll away” (גַּלַל, galal).