What Does Joshua 5:10 Mean?
And the children of Israel pitched camp in Gilgal, and made the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the plains of Jericho.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.THE KEY
At Gilgal, where reproach has just been “rolled away,” Passover turns release into a remembrance practiced in the new land.
THE MEANING
A new place does not erase the deliverance that brought you here; remembrance can remain part of your life now. This verse holds arrival and memory together in one shared observance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that beginning again requires forgetting the release that made the beginning possible.
THE ROOT
גִּלְגָּל
Gilgal
GROWS FROM
גלל
The three-letter root גלל (galal) means to roll or roll away; Gilgal is associated with rolling.
Gilgal’s name echoes גלל (galal, “to roll”), the very verb used in the preceding verse for the reproach being rolled away. The place itself carries that release into the setting of this Passover observance.
ALSO GROWS
galal: To roll, roll away
גָּלַל
The preceding verse uses this verb for the removal of reproach, linking the place name to release.
Gilgal: Rolling; a place name associated with rolling
גִּלְגָּל
The name makes the place where Passover is kept echo the release just declared.
פֶּסַח
Pesach
GROWS FROM
פסח
The root פסח (pasach) means to pass over or spare; the noun פֶּסַח (Pesach) names the Passover observance.
The English name “Passover” keeps the observance tied to the act of being passed over and spared. Here that deliverance is remembered in a new place, so the meal carries the story forward into the present.
ALSO GROWS
pasach: To pass over, spare
פָּסַח
The verb names the act recalled by the Passover observance.
Pesach: Passover; the observance commemorating deliverance
פֶּסַח
In this verse, Passover makes deliverance a shared remembrance in the land.
THE PATTERN
A deliverance remains present when a community gives it a recurring, embodied remembrance.
And this day will be for you a remembrance. You will keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations, a statute for the ages.And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the taunt of Egypt from off you. Therefore the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.Gilgal echoes גלל (galal, “to roll”), the verb this verse uses for rolling away reproach. Passover is kept in that very place, so the name and observance meet in a remembrance shaped by release.
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