Thematic Bible: Place of the first encampment of the israelites west of the jordan river


Thematic Bible



but don't seek Bethel. Don't go to Gilgal, and don't pass over to Beer-sheba. Because Gilgal will surely go into captivity, and Bethel will come to nothing.

"Even though you prostitute yourself, Israel let not Judah incur guilt don't go to Gilgal, or visit Beth-aven, or swear an oath using the LORD's name.

"Come to Bethel and sin, to Gilgal and sin even more! Bring along your morning sacrifices, and pay your tithes every other day.

"There's iniquity in Gilead, isn't there? They have become truly vain. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal; their altars are like piles of stone in furrowed fields.

"All of their wickedness started in Gilgal, because I began to hate them there. Because of the wickedness of their behavior, I will drive them from my Temple. I will not love them anymore; all their leaders are rebels.


The people came up from the Jordan River on the tenth day of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern outskirts of Jericho.

The Gibeonites sent word to Joshua at his camp in Gilgal: "Don't abandon your servants. Come quickly, save us, and help us, because all of the kings of the Amorites who live in the hill country have attacked us."

Then they approached Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and addressed him and the Israelis, "We've arrived from a distant country, so please make a treaty with us right now."

Then Joshua returned to the camp at Gilgal, along with the entire fighting force of Israel.

After this, the descendants of Judah approached Joshua in Gilgal. Jephunneh the Kenizzite's son Caleb told him, "You know the promise that the LORD gave Moses the man of God concerning the two of us in Kadesh-barnea.


So all the people went to Gilgal and there they made Saul king in the LORD's presence in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings in the LORD's presence, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

All Israel heard the report, "Saul has attacked the Philistine garrison and Israel has also become repulsive to the Philistines." Then the people were summoned to Saul at Gilgal. The Philistines assembled to fight against Israel with 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and people as numerous as the sand on the seashore. And they advanced and camped in Michmash, east of Beth-aven. When the men of Israel saw that they were in distress (for the people were in difficult circumstances), the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in crags, in tombs, and in pits. read more.
Hebrews went across the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead, but Saul remained in Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling. Saul waited seven days for the appointment set by Samuel. When Samuel did not arrive at Gilgal, as the people began to scatter from Saul, Saul said, "Bring the burnt offering and the peace offering to me," and he offered the burnt offering. Just as he finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to meet and greet him. Samuel said, "What have you done?" Saul replied, "When? I saw that the people were scattering from me, that you didn't come at the appointed time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash. I thought, "The Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal but I've not sought the favor of the LORD,' so I forced myself to offer the burnt offering." Then Samuel told Saul, "You have acted foolishly. You haven't obeyed the commandment of the LORD your God, which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom won't be established. The LORD has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as Commander-in-Chief over his people because you didn't obey that which the LORD commanded you." Then Samuel got up and went from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. Saul mustered the people present with him, about 600 men.

Saul told the Kenites, "Withdraw from the Amalekites so that I don't destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the Israelis when they departed from Egypt." So the Kenites withdrew from the Amalekites. Saul attacked the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He captured alive Agag king of Amalek, but he completely destroyed all the people, executing them with swords. read more.
Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle the fattened animals and lambs along with all that was good. They were not willing to completely destroy them, but they did completely destroy everything that was worthless and inferior. This message from the LORD came to Samuel: "I regret that I made Saul king, because he has turned away from following me and has not carried out my commands." Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the LORD all night. Samuel got up early in the morning to meet Saul, but Samuel was told, "Saul went up to Carmel to set up a monument for himself. Then he turned around and traveled on to Gilgal." Samuel approached Saul. "May the LORD bless you," Saul said. "I've carried out the LORD's command." Samuel said, "Then what is this bleating of sheep in my ears and the lowing of cattle that I hear?" Saul replied, "They brought them from the Amalekites. The people spared the best of the sheep and cattle to offer sacrifices to the LORD your God, and the rest they completely destroyed." "Be quiet!" Samuel said. "I'll tell you what the LORD told me last night." Saul told him, "Speak." So Samuel replied, "Is it not true that though you were small in your own eyes you became head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed you king over Israel? The LORD sent you on a mission: "Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they're destroyed.' Why didn't you obey the LORD, but grabbed the spoil and did evil in the LORD's sight?" Saul told Samuel, "I did obey the LORD. I went on the mission on which the LORD sent me, I brought Agag king of Amalek, and I completely destroyed the Amalekites. The people took some of the spoil sheep, cattle, and the best of what was to be completely destroyed to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal." Samuel said, "Does the LORD delight as much in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the LORD? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. Indeed, rebellion is the sin of divination, and arrogance is iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected this message from the LORD, he has rejected you from being king."


By doing things like this, he persuaded all the men of Judah to unite in support of him. They sent the king this message: "Come on back, you and all of your army!" So the king returned to Israel as far as the Jordan River.

As the king crossed over the Jordan River to Gilgal, Chimham accompanied him, as did all the troops of Judah and half the troops of Israel. Not long afterward, all the men of Israel started coming to the king, complaining to him, "Why did our relatives in Judah's army sneak you away, taking the king and his household over the Jordan River, along with David's army?" Everybody from Judah shouted to the men from Israel, "We did this because the king is closely related to us. So why are you angry about this? Have we lived off the king's expense? Have we appropriated anything for ourselves?" read more.
But the men from Israel answered the men from Judah: "We represent ten of the tribes of Israel! So we have more right to David than you do! Why haven't you taken us seriously? Weren't we the first to talk about bringing back our king?" But what the people of Judah had to say was harsher than what the people of Israel were saying.


The people came up from the Jordan River on the tenth day of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern outskirts of Jericho. Joshua set up the twelve stones that they had removed from the Jordan River at Gilgal. Then he told the Israelis, "When your descendants ask their parents in years to come, "What is the meaning of these stones?' read more.
you are to tell your descendants: "Israel crossed this Jordan River on dry ground because the LORD your God dried up the water of the Jordan River right in front of you, until you had crossed over, just as the LORD your God had done to the Reed Sea which he had dried up in front of us until we had crossed it also.' Do this so that all of the people of the earth may know how strong the power of the LORD is, and so that you may fear the LORD your God every day."


Elisha returned to Gilgal during a time of famine in the land. While the Guild of Prophets were having a meal with him, he instructed his attendant, "Put a large pot on the fire and boil some stew for the Guild of Prophets." Somebody went out into the fields to grab some herbs, found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds, which he came and sliced up into the stew pot, but nobody else knew. When they served the men, they began to eat the stew. But they cried out, "That pot of stew is deadly, you man of God!" So they couldn't eat the stew.


While the Israelis remained encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they observed the Passover during the evening of the fourteenth day of the month. On the day following Passover on that exact day they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.


So the Israelis served king Eglon of Moab for eighteen years. But when the Israelis cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up Gera's son Ehud, a left-handed descendant of Benjamin, as a deliverer for them. The Israelis paid tribute through him to king Eglon of Moab. Ehud forged a double-edged sword that was one cubit long, tied it to his right thigh under his cloak, read more.
and went to present the tribute to King Eglon of Moab. Now Eglon happened to be a very obese man. As he finished presenting the tribute, Ehud sent away the people who had been carrying it. He had turned away from the idols that were at Gilgal. So he told Eglon, "I have a secret message for you, king." King Eglon responded "Silence!" and all of his attendants left him. Ehud approached him while he was sitting by himself in the cool roof chamber of his palace. He said, "I have a message from God for you!" So when Eglon got up from his seat, Ehud used his left hand to take the sword from his right thigh and then plunged it into Eglon's abdomen. The hilt also penetrated along with the sword blade, and Eglon's fat closed in over the blade. Because he did not withdraw the sword from Eglon's abdomen, the sword point exited from Eglon's entrails. Then Ehud left the cool chamber in the direction of the vestibule, shutting and locking the doors behind him. After he left, Eglon's attendants came to look, but the doors to the cool chamber were locked! So they said, "He must be relieving himself in the inner part of the cool chamber." They waited until they were embarrassed, since he never opened the doors to the chamber. Eventually they took a key, opened the doors, and found their master dead on the ground. Meanwhile, Ehud escaped while they were delayed, passed by the idols, and escaped in the direction of Seirah.


Samuel said, "Just as your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women." Then Samuel cut Agag into pieces in the LORD's presence in Gilgal.


So all the people went to Gilgal and there they made Saul king in the LORD's presence in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings in the LORD's presence, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.


At that time the LORD told Joshua, "Make for yourselves some flint knives and circumcise the Israelis who haven't been circumcised yet." So Joshua made some flint knives and circumcised the Israelis at Gibeath-haaraloth. Joshua circumcised them because all of the males among the people who came out of Egypt that is, all the warriors had died during their journey through the wilderness following their departure from Egypt. read more.
Although everyone who had left Egypt had been circumcised, nevertheless all the people born during the journey after their departure from Egypt had not been circumcised. The Israelis traveled 40 years in the wilderness until the entire nation that is, the warriors who had departed from Egypt had perished because they hadn't listened to the voice of the LORD. The LORD had promised them that he would not let them see the land that he had sworn to give us, a land that flows with milk and honey. As a result, it was their descendants, whom he raised up to take their place, that Joshua circumcised. They had remained uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised during their journey. When the circumcision of the entire nation was complete, they remained in their places within the camp until they were healed. Then the LORD told Joshua, "Today I have rolled the disgrace of Egypt away from you." That's why that place is called "Gilgal" to this day.


He went on a circuit each year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all those places.


The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land. Since the Israelis no longer received manna, they ate crops from the land of Canaan that year.


He had turned away from the idols that were at Gilgal. So he told Eglon, "I have a secret message for you, king." King Eglon responded "Silence!" and all of his attendants left him.


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