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.