Joshua 12:23

Jos 12:23. The king of Gilgal — This Gilgal is not the place where Joshua encamped when he came over Jordan; for there was no city there, nor any king of that country, but the king of Jericho. That place had also its name from the circumcision of the Israelites there, chap. Jos 5:9.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 23. The king of Dor] The city of this name fell to the lot of the children of Manasseh, Jos 17:11. Bochart observes that it was one of the oldest royal cities in Phoenicia. The Canaanites held it, Jdg 1:27. Antiochus Sydetes besieged it in aftertimes, but could not make himself master of it. See Bochart, Canaan, lib. i., c. 28, and Dodd.

The king of the nations of Gilgal] This is supposed to mean the higher Galilee, surnamed Galilee of the Gentiles or, nations, as the Hebrew word גוים goyim means. On this ground it should be read king of Galilee of the nations. Others suppose it is the same country with that of which Tidal was king, see Ge 14:1. The place is very uncertain, and commentators have rendered it more so by their conjectures.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. Dor] See Jos_11:2.

the nations of Gilgal] “The kyng of the Gentils (folkis) of Galgal,” Wyclif. For the word here rendered “nations” comp. Gen_10:5, “every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations;” Gen_14:1, “Tidal king of nations.” The Gilgal here mentioned is not the Gilgal on the Jordan, but the modern Jiljilieh, west of Ebal and Gerizim, in the plain along the Mediterranean. See above, ch. Jos_9:6.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The king of Dor, in the coast of Dor, one,.... Of which see Jos 11:2; it fell to the lot of Manasseh, but never was possessed by them, as were not Taanach and Megiddo, before mentioned, Jos 17:11 Jdg 1:27,

the king of the nations of Gilgal, one; not the place where Joshua encamped after he had passed Jordan, for that was then no city; the Septuagint version renders it the land of Galilee; and Dr. Lightfoot (s) is of opinion that Galilee is meant, and in the Apocrypha:"Who went forth by the way that leadeth to Galgala, and pitched their tents before Masaloth, which is in Arbela, and after they had won it, they slew much people.'' (1 Maccabees 9:2)Galgala is spoken of as near to Arbel, a city in Galilee: Jerom (t) takes this to be the same with Glagulis, which in his time was a village six miles from Antipatris to the north.

(s) Chorograph. Cent. c. 88. (t) De loc. Heb. fol. 92. B.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Galgal, not where the Israelites had encamped, but that part which was afterwards called the Galilee of the Gentiles, in some corner of which the king in question had fixed his residence. For we cannot suppose that he ruled over all that country, extending from Tyre to beyond the Jordan. His people might probably be a mixed multitude of various nations, as Strabo (xvi.) observes, that many parts of Palestine were peopled by men of this description.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Dor, of which Jos 11:2.

Gilgal; not of that Gilgal where Joshua first lodged after his passage over Jordan; where it doth not appear that there was either king or city; but of another city of the same name, (as was frequent in those parts,) probably in Galilee towards the sea whither divers people might possibly resort for trade and merchandise, over whom this was king, as formerly Tidal seems to have been, Gen 14:1.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. Dor — See Jos_11:2.

[King of the nations of Gilgal — This intimates that Gilgal was a capital whose sovereign ruled several surrounding tribes. This Gilgal must be distinguished both from that in the Jordan valley and that in the hills of Ephraim. It was probably the Galgulis of Eusebius and Jerome, on the Mediterranean plain, about eighteen miles northeast of Joppa, and near to Antipatris. It is supposed by Robinson and others to be the same as the modern village of Jiljulieh, two miles southeast of the site of Antipatris.]

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Gen_14:1. But others regard the "nations" (Goim) mentioned there as equivalent to the Gutinm of the Babylonian tabletsi.e. , Semitic tribes imperfectly organised, then dwelling in Babylonia, and prefer the LXX reading, Yargal , in Gen_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

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

King of Gilgal - Not of that Gilgal where Joshua first lodged after his passage over Jordan; where it doth not appear, that there was either king or city; but of a city of the same name, probably in Galilee towards the sea, where divers people might possibly resort for trade and merchandise, over whom this was a king, as formerly Tidal seems to have been, Gen. xiv, 1.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Dor: see Jos 11:2. Gilgal: the seat of the king of the Goyim (a proper name, as in Gen 14:1), in all probability the same place as the villa nomine Galgulis mentioned in the Onom. (s. v. Gelgel) as being six Roman miles to the north of Antipatris, which still exists in the Moslem village of Jiljule (now almost a ruin; see Rob. Bibl. Res. p. 136), although this village is only two miles E.S.E. of Kefr Sba, the ancient Antipatris (see Ritter, Erdk. xvi. pp. 568-9). Thirza, the capital of the kings of Israel down to the time of Omri (Kg1 14:17; Kg1 15:21, Kg1 15:33; Kg1 16:6.), is probably the present Talluza, an elevated and beautifully situated place, of a considerable size, surrounded by large olive groves, two hours to the north of Shechem (see Rob. Bibl. Res. p. 302, and Van de Velde, ii. p. 294).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

The Dor region. The provinces of Dor.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.