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BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS

BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS

Jos 1:6  Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. 
Jos 1:7  Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. 
Jos 1:8  This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. 
Jos 1:9  Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. 
Jos 1:10  Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, 
Jos 1:11  Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your God giveth you to possess it. 
Jos 1:12  And to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh, spake Joshua, saying, 
Jos 1:13  Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, The LORD your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land. 
Jos 1:14  Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them; 
Jos 1:15  Until the LORD have given your brethren rest, as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the LORD your God giveth them: then ye shall return unto the land of your possession, and enjoy it, which Moses the LORD'S servant gave you on this side Jordan toward the sunrising. 
Jos 1:16  And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go. 
Jos 1:17  According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee: only the LORD thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. 
Jos 1:18  Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death: only be strong and of a good courage. 


The promise is followed by the condition upon which the Lord would fulfil His word. Joshua was to be firm and strong, i.e., well-assured, courageous, not alarmed (vid., Deu_31:6). In the first place (Jos_1:6), he was to rely firmly upon the Lord and His promise, as Moses and the Lord had already told him (Deu_31:7 and Deu_31:23), and as is again repeated here, whilst at the same time the expression, “thou shalt divide for an inheritance,” recalls to mind Deu_1:38; Deu_3:28; and in the second place (Jos_1:7, Jos_1:8), he was to strive to attain and preserve this firmness by a careful observance of the law. “Observe to do,” etc., as Moses had already impressed upon the hearts of all the people (Deu_5:29, cf. Deu_28:14 and Deu_2:27). The suffix in מִמֶּנּוּ is to be explained on the supposition that the speaker had the book of the law in his mind. The further expansion, in Jos_1:8, is not only attached to the exhortations, with which Moses urges upon all the people in Deu_6:6-7, and Deu_11:18-19, an uninterrupted study and laying to heart of the commandments of God, but even more closely to the directions to the king, to read every day in the law (Deu_17:19). “Not to depart out of the mouth,” is to be constantly in the mouth. The law is in our mouth, not only when we are incessantly preaching it, but when we are reading it intelligently for ourselves, or conversing about it with others. To this there was to be added meditation, or reflection upon it both day and night (vid., Psa_1:2). הָגָה does not mean theoretical speculation about the law, such as the Pharisees indulged in, but a practical study of the law, for the purpose of observing it in thought and action, or carrying it out with the heart, the mouth, and the hand. Such a mode of employing it would be sure to be followed by blessings. “Then shalt thou make they way prosperous,” i.e., succeed in all thine undertakings (vid., Deu_28:29), “and act wisely” (as in Deu_29:8).

Mikve from Second Temple era unearthed in J'lem 

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD

04/10/2013 13:38

In preparing to build a new highway near Jerusalem's Kiryat Menachem neighborhood, archeologists have discovered an ancient treasure.

 An archeological excavation near a highway construction site in Jerusalem’s Kiryat Menahem neighborhood unearthed a rare mikve, or ritual bath, which dates back to the late Second Temple period.

“We started [the excavation] one week before Passover and ended the day after the holiday,” said Benyamin Storchan, director of the Antiquities Authority excavation. Storchan said that while multiple ritual baths have been excavated in Jerusalem in recent years, the water supply system his team uncovered is “unique and unusual.”

“The ritual baths known until now usually consist of a closed cavity that was supplied with rainwater conveyed from a small rock-cut pool located nearby,” he said. “The complex that was exposed at this time is a more sophisticated and intricate system.

The bath was apparently associated with a settlement that was situated there in the Second Temple period.”

Storchan said the mikve consists of a stair-accessible underground chamber that received rainwater channeled from three collecting basins hewn on the roof of the bath.

“Presumably, due to the rainfall and arid conditions of the region, the inhabitants sought special techniques...

to store every drop of water,” said Storchan.

“It’s interesting to note that the bath conforms to all of the [Jewish] laws [pertaining to mikvaot]... like collecting the water in it naturally, without human contact, and ensuring that the water does not seep into the earth, which is why the bath was treated with a special kind of plaster.”

The archeologist said that after the mikve went out of use, it served as a quarry, and the water channels were filled with earth. During the 20th century, he added, the immersion chamber was cleaned and a round opening was created in its roof in order to transform it into a cistern.

According to Amit Re’em, Jerusalem District archeologist for the authority, the Kiryat Menahem community has expressed great interest in the conservation of the mikve.

“The Antiquities Authority and the Moriah Company are working to make this delightful treasure a

FUN FRIDAY

DLTK's Crafts for Kids

Camel Egg Carton Craft

cardboard egg carton
brown paint or marker
masking tape
ball of Aluminum foil
OPTIONAL:  wiggly eyes
OPTIONAL:  wool
Instructions:
cut a two cup strip and a single cup from your egg carton.

cut four strips from the lid of your egg carton for the legs.  Leave a bit of the lip of the carton for the feet

cut a piece from the center of the lid for the camels neck.  It's best if you can get one of the little lumps from the lid to slide into the camel's head

tape a ball of Aluminum foil into the back cup of the camel.  This weights the back so he doesn't constantly fall forward on his face.

tape/glue the pieces of the camel together.

The neck should be taped to the two cup section.
The other end of the neck should be taped into the single cup
The legs should be taped to the front and back of the two cup section.

paint the camel brown

OPTIONAL:  glue on wiggly eyes and a wool tail

A GREAT LEADER IS BORN

CONTINUED WITH BABY MOSES

Exo 2:5-10  

Here is, I. Moses saved from perishing. Come see the place where that great man lay when he was a little child; he lay in a bulrush-basket by the river's side. Had he been left to lie there, he must have perished in a little time with hunger, if he had not been sooner washed into the river or devoured by a crocodile. Had he fallen into any other hands than those he did fall into, either they would not, or durst not, have done otherwise than have thrown him straightway into the river; but Providence brings no less a person thither than Pharaoh's daughter, just at that juncture, guides her to the place where this poor forlorn infant lay, and inclines her heart to pity it, which she dares do when none else durst. Never did poor child cry so seasonably, so happily, as this did: The babe wept, which moved the compassion of the princess, as no doubt his beauty did, Exo_2:5, Exo_2:6. Note, 1. Those are hard-hearted indeed that have not a tender compassion for helpless infancy. How pathetically does God represent his compassion for the Israelites in general considered in this pitiable state! Eze_16:5, Eze_16:6. 2. It is very commendable in persons of quality to take cognizance of the distresses of the meanest, and to be helpful and charitable to them. 3. God's care of us in our infancy ought to be often made mention of by us to his praise. Though we were not thus exposed (that we were not was God's mercy) yet many were the perils we were surrounded with in our infancy, out of which the Lord delivered us, Psa_22:9, Psa_22:10. 4. God often raises up friends for his people even among their enemies. Pharaoh cruelly seeks Israel's destruction, but his own daughter charitably compassionates a Hebrew child, and not only so, but, beyond her intention, preserves Israel's deliverer. O Lord, how wonderful are thy counsels!
II. Moses well provided with a good nurse, no worse than his own dear mother, Exo_2:7-9. Pharaoh's daughter thinks it convenient that he should have a Hebrew nurse (pity that so fair a child should be suckled by a sable Moor), and the sister of Moses, with art and good management, introduces the mother into the place of a nurse, to the great advantage of the child; for mothers are the best nurses, and those who receive the blessings of the breasts with those of the womb are not just if they give them not to those for whose sake they received them: it was also an unspeakable satisfaction to the mother, who received her son as life from the dead, and now could enjoy him without fear. The transport of her joy, upon this happy turn, we may suppose sufficient to betray her to be the true mother (had there been any suspicion of it) to a less discerning eye than that of Solomon, 1Ki_3:27.
III. Moses preferred to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter (Exo_2:10), his parents herein perhaps not only yielding to necessity, having nursed him for her, but too much pleased with the honour thereby done to their son; for the smiles of the world are stronger temptations than its frowns, and more difficult to resist. The tradition of the Jews is that Pharaoh's daughter had no child of her own, and that she was the only child of her father, so that when he was adopted for her son he stood fair for the crown: however it is certain he stood fair for the best preferments of the court in due time, and in the mean time had the advantage of the best education and improvements of the court, with the help of which, having a great genius, he became master of all the lawful learning of the Egyptians, Act_7:22. Note, 1. Providence pleases itself sometimes in raising the poor out of the dust, to set them among princes, Psa_113:7, Psa_113:8. Many who, by their birth, seem marked for obscurity and poverty, by surprising events of Providence are brought to sit at the upper end of the world, to make men know that the heavens do rule. 2. Those whom God designs for great services he find out ways to qualify and prepare beforehand. Moses, by having his education in a court, is the fitter to be a prince and king in Jeshurun; by having his education in a learned court (for such the Egyptian then was) is the fitter to be an historian; and by having his education in the court of Egypt is the fitter to be employed, in the name of God, as an ambassador to that court.
IV. Moses named. The Jews tell us that his father, at his circumcision, called him Joachim, but Pharaoh's daughter called him Moses, Drawn out of the water, so it signifies in the Egyptian language. The calling of the Jewish lawgiver by an Egyptian name is a happy omen to the Gentile world, and gives hopes of that day when it shall be said, Blessed be Egypt my people, Isa_19:25. And his tuition at court was an earnest of the performance of that promise, Isa_49:23, Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers.



Exo 2:10
He became her son - See the margin reference. His training and education was, humanly speaking, all but indispensable to the efficient accomplishment of his work as the predestined leader and instructor of his countrymen. Moses probably passed the early years of his life in Lower Egypt, where the princess resided. However, there may be substantial grounds for the tradition in Josephus that he was engaged in a campaign against the Ethiopians, thus showing himself, as Stephen says, “mighty in word and deed.”
Moses - The Egyptian origin of this word is generally admitted. The name itself is not uncommon in ancient documents. The exact meaning is “son,” but the verbal root of the word signifies “produce,” “draw forth.” The whole sentence in Egyptian would exactly correspond to our King James Version. She called his name Moses, i. e. “son,” or “brought forth,” because she brought him forth out of the water.

BABY MOSES

MOSES' MOTHER

Moses' Mother

Please note that some of the conclusions reached in this article are the author's and are not necessarily endorsed by this website.

According to the record in Exodus 2:5-10,

"The daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river and her maidens walked along the river's side. When she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it and wheen she had opened it, she saw the child and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him and said, 'This is one of the Hebrews' children. ... And the child grew and she brought hm to Pharaohs daughter and he became her son, so she called his name 'Moses', saying, 'Because I drew him out of the water.'"

Many consider this an implausible story. They question the possibility of an Egyptian princess adopting a slave child and proposing to make him the next Pharaoh. Others have regarded it as factual and have tried to locate it in its historical setting. Dr Siegfried Horn of Andrews University, Michigan, claimed that Queen Hatshepsut of the 18th Dynasty was the princess.

Matching the Biblical date of the Exodus, about 1445 BC, with the usually accepted date for the 18th Dynasty would produce an approximate synchronism, but the known historical facts do not fit the story.

When Tutmoses II, the husband of Hatshepsut, died prematurely, his son by a secondary wife was immediately crowned as Pharaoh Tutmoses III. On Hatshepsut's death, Tutmoses III assumed the throne and became the greatest pharaoh that ever ruled the land of Egypt. There is no place for Moses in this scenario.

Queen Sobekkara Sobekneferu, Queen of the Twelfth Dynasty.

 However recently some scholars have challenged the standard Egyptian chronology and called for a revised dating that would locate the Moses story in the 12th Dynasty. If this is correct, the most likely contender for the princess who adopted Moses would be Sobekneferu, the daughter of Amenemhet III.


Amenemhet had two daughters but no sons have been positively identified. Amenemhet IV has been suggested as a son of Amenemhet III, but he could just as plausibly be the son of Sobekneferu. He is a mysterious figure who may have been a co-regent of Amenemhet III or even of Sobekneferu. Dr Donovan Courville claims that he should be identified as Moses, the foster son of Sobekneferu.

Josephus wrote:

"Having no child of her own, she thought to make him her father's successor."
Antiquities of the Jews Book II, chapter ix, par. 7

Certainly there seems to be no historical record of her having a son. When her father died she assumed the throne and ruled for only four years. Having no heir, the dynasty came to an end and was replaced by the 13th Dynasty.

If Sobekneferu was the foster-mother of Moses, the circumstances seem to fit the story. She would not have been down by the river taking a bath because she had no bathroom in the palace. The river god Hapi was the fertility god of Egypt and she would have been down there observing a religious ritual and praying to the Hapi for a baby. The arrival of the beautiful Hebrew baby would seem like an answer to her prayers.

Amemenhet probably ruled for 43 years. If Moses was born near the beginning of his reign, he would have fled from Egypt forty years later near the end of his reign. Moses showed his sympathy for the Israelites by murdering an Egyptian task-master who was flogging an Israelite.

"When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian."
Exodus 2:15

If Sobekneferu was Moses' foster-mother she was certainly well qualified to fill the role. She was one of Egypt's few reigning queens and set the pace for the more famous Queen Hatshepsut. Wriing in KMT (1998 spring edition) Dr Gae Callender of Sydney's Macquarie University has presented a well-researched article on Sobekneferu.

Gae frankly admits that very little is known about Sobekneferu's reigh, but then proceeds to delineate a lot of interesting material on this remarkable queen. The writer is understandably vague about the relationships of these last monarchs of the 12th Dynasty.

"Sobekneferu may have been a sister or half-sister of Amenemhet IV, whose reign lasted just over nine years. He perhaps shares a co-regency of an uncertain length with Amenemhet III."

The name 'Sobekneferu' means, "The beauties of Sobek", the crocodile god. The rulers of the 12th Dynasty established a religious and economic centre in the Fayyum Oasis where crocodiles were nurtured and worshipped.

Sobekneferu left very few known statues of herself and none of them are complete. Three life-sized basalt statues of her were found in the delta at Tel el-Daba, but they were all headless and, in fact, were subsequently lost! No one knows where they are today. In 1973 the Louvre in Paris purcased a large reddish statue which has no arms, legs or head. When complete it would have stood 5'2" in height. This may be a representation of Sobekneferu.

Queen Hatshepsut presented herself as a male pharaoh, but she was not the first queen to have done so. In the British Museum there is a cylinder seal of Sobekneferu which gives her Horus name in a masculine form. In a glorious mixture of gender pronouns, she also refers to herself as "She whose appearance is stable, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Sobekneferu of Shedet, she lives." Her pernomen was "Son of Re, Sobekneferu". In another conglomeration of sexes, the statue in the Louvre depicts her wearing a male kilt worn over a female shift. No wonder Gae Callender comments,

"To put it simply, Sobekneferu may have been uncertain exactly what sex she should be for the official record!"

The four statues referred to above have no heads, so her facial appearance cannot be determined from these, but Dennis Forbes, the editor of KMT speculateson the possibility of another statue belonging to Sobekneferu. Dr Dorothea Arnold of New York's Metropolitan Museum commented on a head that is in that museum. It as a beautiful young face and has been assumed to belong to Amenemhet III, who left many statues of himself, but they all depict him as a sour-faced monarch with features appropriate for a pharaoh who cruelly enslaved the Israelites. The Metropolitan Museum head bears no resemblance to Amenemhet III and as it has no inscribed name, it may be the head of Sobekneferu.

David Down


Exo 2:5  And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. 
Exo 2:6  And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. 
Exo 2:7  Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? 
Exo 2:8  And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. 
Exo 2:9  And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. 
Exo 2:10  And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water. 

Exo_2:5
Pharaoh's daughter is called Thermouthis or Merris in Jewish tradition, and by the Rabbins בתיה. עַל־הַיְאֹר is to be connected with תֵּרֶד, and the construction with עַל to be explained as referring to the descent into (upon) the river from the rising bank. The fact that a king's daughter should bathe in the open river is certainly opposed to the customs of the modern, Mohammedan East, where this is only done by women of the lower orders, and that in remote places (Lane, Manners and Customs); but it is in harmony with the customs of ancient Egypt,
(Note: Wilkinson gives a picture of bathing scene, in which an Egyptian woman of rank is introduced, attended by four female servants.)
and in perfect agreement with the notions of the early Egyptians respecting the sanctity of the Nile, to which divine honours even were paid (vid., Hengstenberg's Egypt, etc. pp. 109, 110), and with the belief, which was common to both ancient and modern Egyptians, in the power of its waters to impart fruitfulness and prolong life (vid., Strabo, xv. p. 695, etc., and Seetzen, Travels iii. p. 204).
Exo_2:6-8
The exposure of the child at once led the king's daughter to conclude that it was one of the Hebrews' children. The fact that she took compassion on the weeping child, and notwithstanding the king's command (Exo_1:22) took it up and had it brought up (of course, without the knowledge of the king), may be accounted for from the love to children which is innate in the female sex, and the superior adroitness of a mother's heart, which co-operated in this case, though without knowing or intending it, in the realization of the divine plan of salvation. Competens fuit divina vindicta, ut suis affectibus puniatur parricida et filiae provisione pereat qui genitrices interdixerat parturire (August. Sermo 89 de temp.).
Exo_2:9
With the directions, “Take this child away (הֵילִיכִי for הֹולִיכִי used here in the sense of leading, bringing, carrying away, as in Zec_5:10; Ecc_10:20) and suckle it for me,” the king's daughter gave the child to its mother, who was unknown to her, and had been fetched as a nurse.
Exo_2:10
When the child had grown large, i.e., had been weaned (יִגְדַּל as in Gen_21:8), the mother, who acted as nurse, brought it back to the queen's daughter, who then adopted it as her own son, and called it Moses (מֹשֶׁה): “for,” she said, “out of the water have I drawn him” (מְשִׁיתִהוּ). As Pharaoh's daughter gave this name to the child as her adopted son, it must be an Egyptian name. The Greek form of the name, Μωΰσῆς (lxx), also points to this, as Josephus affirms. “Thermuthis,” he says, “imposed this name upon him, from what had happened when he was put into the river; for the Egyptians call water Mo, and those who are rescued from the water Uses” (Ant. ii. 9, 6, Whiston's translation). The correctness of this statement is confirmed by the Coptic, which is derived from the old Egyptian.
(Note: Josephus gives a somewhat different explanation in his book against Apion (i. 31), when he says, “His true name was Moüses, and signifies a person who is rescued from the water, for the Egyptians call water Moü.” Other explanations, though less probable ones, are attempted by Gesenius in his Thes. p. 824, and Knobel in loc.)
Now, though we find the name explained in the text from the Hebrew מָשָׁה, this is not to be regarded as a philological or etymological explanation, but as a theological interpretation, referring to the importance of the person rescued from the water to the Israelitish nation. In the lips of an Israelite, the name Mouje, which was so little suited to the Hebrew organs of speech, might be involuntarily altered into Moseh; “and this transformation became an unintentional prophecy, for the person drawn out did become, in fact, the drawer out” (Kurtz). Consequently Knobel's supposition, that the writer regarded מֹשֶׁה as a participle Poal with the מ dropped, is to be rejected as inadmissible. - There can be no doubt that, as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, Moses received a thoroughly Egyptian training, and was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, as Stephen states in Act_7:22 in accordance with Jewish tradition.
(Note: The tradition, on the other hand, that Moses was a priest of Heliopolis, named Osarsiph (Jos. c. Ap. i. 26, 28), is just as unhistorical as the legend of his expedition against the Ethiopians (Jos. Ant. ii. 10), and many others with which the later, glorifying Saga embellished his life in Egypt.)
Through such an education as this, he received just the training required for the performance of the work to which God had called him. Thus the wisdom of Egypt was employed by the wisdom of God for the establishment of the kingdom of God.

FUN FRIDAY

CHRISTIAN COLORING PAGE

ELISHA

GILGAL

Gilgal

gil´gal (גּלגּל, gilgāl, “circle”; Γάλγαλα, Gálgala): The article is always with the name except in Jos_5:9. There are three places to which the name is attached:
(1) The first camp of Israel after crossing the Jordan (Jos_4:19; Jos_5:9, Jos_5:10; Jos_9:6; Jos_10:7; Jos_14:6; Jos_15:7; Deu_11:30). According to Jos_15:7 it lay to the North of the valley of Achor, which formed the border between Judah and Benjamin. Here 12 memorial stones taken from the bed of the river were set up by Joshua, after the miraculous crossing of the Jordan; and here (Jos_5:5) the people were circumcised preparatory to their possession of the land, when it is said in Josh, with a play upon the word, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.” Whereupon the Passover was celebrated (Jos_5:10) and the manna ceased (Jos_5:12). To Gilgal the ark returned every day after having compassed the city of Jericho during its siege (Jos_6:11). Hither the Gibeonites came to make their treaty (Jos_9:3), and again (Jos_10:6) to ask aid against the Amorites. Gilgal was still the headquarters of the Israelites after the battle with the Amorites (Jos_10:15); again after Joshua's extensive victorious campaign in the hill country of Judea extending to Kadesh-barnea and Gaza (Jos_10:15); and still later upon his return from the great battle at the Waters of Merom (Jos_14:6). At the conclusion of the conquest (Jos_18:1), the headquarters were transferred to Shiloh on the summit of the mountain ridge to the West.
Gilgal reappears frequently in subsequent history. Samuel (1Sa_7:16) made it one of the three places where he annually held circuit court, the other places being Bethel and Mizpah. The Septuagint text adds that these were holy places. The place continued as one of special resort for sacrifices (1Sa_10:8; 1Sa_13:8, 1Sa_13:9, 1Sa_13:10; 1Sa_15:21), while it was here that Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before the Lord (1Sa_15:33), and that Saul was both crowned (1Sa_11:14, 1Sa_11:15) and rejected as king. It was at Gilgal, also (2Sa_19:15), that the people assembled to welcome David as he returned from his exile beyond Jordan during Absalom's rebellion. The early prophets refer to Gilgal as a center of idolatry in their day (Hos_4:15; Hos_9:15; Hos_12:11; Amo_4:4; Amo_5:5). Micah (Mic_6:5) represents Gilgal as at the other end of the Dead Sea from Shittim.
In 1874 Conder recognized the name Gilgal as surviving in Birket Jiljúlieh, a pool beside a tamarisk tree 3 miles East of old Jericho. The pool measures 100 ft. by 84, and is surrounded with a wall of roughly hewn stones. North of the pool Bliss discovered lines of masonry 300 yds. long, representing probably the foundations of an ancient monastery. South of the pool there are numerous mounds scattered over an area of one-third of a square mile, the largest being 50 feet in diameter, and 10 feet in height. On excavation some pottery and glass were found. These ruins are probably those of early Christian occupation, and according to Conder there is nothing against their marking the original site. Up to the Middle Ages the 12 stones of Joshua were referred to by tradition.
(2) According to 2Ki_2:1; 2Ki_4:38, Elisha for a time made his headquarters at Gilgal, a place in the mountains not far from Bethel identified by Conder as Jiljilia, standing on a high hill on the North side of the Wādy el-Jib. It is lower than Bethel, but the phrase in 2Ki_2:2, “they went down to Beth-el,” may refer to their initial descent into the wādy. It could not have been said that they went down from Gilgal to Bethel in the Jordan valley. The place seems to be referred to in Neh_12:29 as Beth-gilgal.
(3) Gilgal of the nations: In Jos_12:23 Gilgal is mentioned as a royal city associated with Dor, evidently upon the maritime plain. Dor is identified with Tantura, while Conder identifies this Gilgal with Jiljúlieh, 30 miles South of Dor and 4 miles North of Anti-patris.