To the camp at Gilgal. Many commentators, among whom we may number Vandevelde and the recent Palestine Exploration Expedition, suppose that the Gilgal mentioned here is another Gilgal, and certainly the supposition derives great force from the fact that there is a place the modern name of which is Jiljilia, situated near the oaks of Moreh, whose situation would be far more central, and would fall in better with the rest of the history (see notes on Joshua 8:30), than the original Gilgal.
That such a second Gilgal is known to Jewish history would appear from Deuteronomy 11:30, where its situation is clearly pointed out as that of the modern Jiljilia, near the oaks of Moreh, and near the Arabah (champaign, Authorised Version), which runs in that direction.
Jiljulieh, in the plain of Sharon, is supposed by Vandevelde and the Palestine explorers to be a third Gilgal, and Jerome, in his 'Onomasticon,' has identified it (see note on Joshua 12:23). The Gilgal in 1 Samuel 13:4-12 seems to require a central position like that of Jiljilia, rather than a place near the fords of Jordan.
As Ewald reminds us, the earlier Gilgal lay out of the road from Jericho to Bethel (see also 2 Kings 2:1-6). The only argument against such a second Gilgal is the improbability of a removal of the camp without any mention of such removal by the historian, and the improbability of there having been a second Gilgal as the place of encampment of the Israelites.
It is possible, however, that the second great place of encampment received the memorable name of the first, from the keen sense that the Israelitish encampment was the abode of a people from which the "reproach of Egypt" was forever rolled away.
Another explanation is suggested by a comparison of Joshua 15:7 with Joshua 18:17 (see note on the former passage). The second Gilgal, if it really existed, was well suited for its purpose. "It was in the centre of the country, situated upon a steep hill, with a good table land at the top, and commanded a most extensive prospect of the large plain in the west, and also towards the north and east" (Keil)—precisely the place which an able general would be likely to select.
Though "in a high position'' (Vandevelde), it was "lower than Gibeon," and was "an hour west of Sinjil on the Jerusalem Shechem road." Its situation enabled Joshua to strike a decisive blow without delay (Joshua 10:7, Joshua 10:9).
It is clear that this suggestion entirely obviates the difficulty of the concluding verses of Joshua 8:1-35. And as the name implies a circular form as well as motion, and early camps were usually circular, it may have been the ordinary name for an encampment among the Hebrews.