Sunday Knox: Joshua 5:9-12

"This day, the Lord said to Josue, I have reversed the lot that made you slaves in Egypt; (and so the place came to be called Galgal, Turning Round, the name it still bears.) In Galgal, then, the Israelites remained encamped, and there they celebrated the pasch on the plains of Jericho, beginning at evening on the fourteenth day of the month.  And when they ate unleavened bread on the morrow, they were eating corn that was grown on the ground where they stood; their flour was made of that year’s harvest.  Once they had begun to enjoy their own harvest, the supply of manna ceased, nor did the sons of Israel ever taste that food again; they ate the crops which the land of Chanaan yielded that year." -Knox Bible

Knox Notes:
Josue 5:9 ‘Reversed the lot that made you slaves in Egypt’; literally, ‘rolled away the reproach of Egypt’; an obscure phrase which shows that tradition associated the circumcision of the Israelites with this spot. The name Galgal probably designates a circle of stones.


"The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.” (Therefore the place is called Gilgal to the present day.) While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth of the month. On the day after the Passover, they ate of the produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain. On that same day after the Passover, on which they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased. No longer was there manna for the Israelites, who that year ate of the yield of the land of Canaan." -NAB

NAB Notes:
[5:9] The place is called Gilgal: by popular etymology, because of the similarity of sound with the Hebrew word gallothi, “I have removed.” Gilgal probably means “circle,” i.e., the place of the circle of standing stones. Cf. 4:4–8.

[5:10] The month: the first month of the year, later called Nisan; see note on 3:15. The crossing of the Jordan occurred, therefore, about the same time of the year as did the crossing of the Red Sea; cf. Exodus 12–14.