Joshua 4:19

19 And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the eastern extremity of Jericho.

Joshua 4:19 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 4:19

And the people came up out of Jordan
The channel of it, to the shore:

on the tenth [day] of the first month;
the month Nisan or Abib, which from the time of Israel's coming out of Egypt was appointed the first month of the year, ( Exodus 12:2 ) ; on the fifteenth of which month they came out of Egypt, having kept the passover on the fourteenth at even; so that their coming out of Egypt, to their entrance into Canaan, was just forty years, wanting five days. This tenth day was the day in which the passover was taken from the flock, and kept till the fourteenth, on which day the children of Israel kept their first passover in Canaan, in the plains of Jericho, ( Joshua 5:10 ) ;

and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho;
it has its name here by anticipation, for it was so named after this for a reason given, ( Joshua 5:9 ) ; It was, according to Josephus ^F12, ten furlongs, or a mile and a quarter, from Jericho. Jerom says ^F13, there was shown in his time a desert place two miles from Jericho, had in wonderful esteem by men of that country, which he suggests was this place; as it was had in great veneration, both by the worshippers of the true God, and by idolaters, for many ages.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 4.)
F13 De loc. Heb. fol. 91. M.

Joshua 4:19 In-Context

17 And Joshua commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan.

18 And it came to pass when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah had come up out of the midst of the Jordan, [when] the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up on to the dry land, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and they flowed as previously, over all its banks.

19 And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the eastern extremity of Jericho.

20 And those twelve stones which they had taken out of the Jordan did Joshua set up in Gilgal.

21 And he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children hereafter ask their fathers, saying, What [mean] these stones?