Joshua 12:23

The nations of Gilgal. Or the nations that belong to Gilgal . This is identified by Yandevelde and Conder with Jiljulieh in the plain of Jordan, north of Antipatris, and is therefore, if this identification be correct, a third Gilgal. The word "nations" most probably signifies a diversity of tribes of various races gathered together under the headship of the king of Gilgal, much in the same way that the kingdom of Mercia arose in England from a confused mass of various tribes, gathered together on the marches, or military frontiers, between Britons, Saxons and English, or in the same way that the Austrian and Turkish empires have been formed out of a congeries of various nationalities. So we read of "Tidal king of nations" in Genesis 14:1 . But others regard the "nations" (Goim) mentioned there as equivalent to the Gutinm of the Babylonian tablets— i.e; Semitic tribes imperfectly organised, then dwelling in Babylonia, and prefer the LXX . reading, θαργάλ , in Genesis 14:1 , which Sir Henry Rawlinson considers equivalent to the Accadian Tur Gal, or "great chief." So Sayce, 'Babl. Lit.,' p. 23; Tomkins, 'Studies on the Time of Abraham.' See Introduction III .