Gilgal

The first encampment of Israel after the crossing of the Jordan, on the plains east of Jericho (Joshua 4:19). At Gilgal, Joshua sets up the twelve memorial stones taken from the riverbed and the men born in the wilderness are circumcised. In the time of Samuel and Saul it serves as a regional sanctuary; by the eighth-century prophets it is one of the irregular shrines they call Israel to leave behind. The Elijah-Elisha cycle opens with the two prophets walking from Gilgal toward Bethel on Elijah's last day (2 Kings 2).