Joshua 4:20

And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.

Those twelve stones ... did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. Probably to render them more conspicuous, they might be raised on a foundation of earth and turf; and as the Hebrew word Gilgal signifies a circle, it may be applied either to a circular stone or a circular row of stones: so that Gilgal was a place for the assembling of the people, first, for religious purposes, and afterward for general objects, especially for holding courts of justice (cf. Joshua 9:6; Joshua 10:6; Joshua 14:6; Joshua 15:7; 1 Samuel 10:8; 1 Samuel 11:14; 1 Samuel 13:4; 1 Samuel 15:21). Stonehenge, Crookem Tor on Dartmoor, and the Druidical circles were similar in construction, and devoted to analogous purposes. To find these stones is one of the objects contemplated by the Palestine Archaeological Association, the council of which, in the prospectus issued October, 1854, use the following words regarding them: 'Doubtless these stones which Joshua pitched were large and remarkable, and were probably arranged numerically, and with some significant order, that their purpose might be ever afterward recognized. Nor is it improbable that some name or device might have been put on them, to identify them individually with the tribes of Israel. The remote period of those stones would lead us to expect that they would, many years ago, have sunk into the earth, and would be hidden under an accumulation of mosses and herbage, but still not lost beyond the reach of diligent and skillful research.' The pile was designed to serve a double purpose-that of impressing the pagan with a sense of the omnipotence of God, while at the same time it would teach an important lesson in religion to the young and rising Israelites in later ages; and it became the first sanctuary in Canaan (Joshua 4:15), the earliest station of the tabernacle (Joshua 18:1).