Galgala

Gal'gala (Γάλγαλα; Vulg. Galgala), the ordinary equivalent in the Sept. for GILGAL. In the A.V. it is named only in 1 Macc. 9:2, as designating the direction of the road taken by the army of Demetrius, when they attacked Masaloth in Arbela — "the way to Galgala" (ὁδὸν τὴν εἰς Γάλγαλα). The army, as we learn from the statements of Josephus (Ant. 12:11. 1), was on its way from Antioch, and there is no reason to doubt that by Arbela is meant the place of that name in Galilee now surviving as Irbid. Its ultimate destination was Jerusalem (1 Macc. 9:3), and Galgala may therefore be either the upper Gilgal, near Bethel (Robinson, Researches, 3:8), as Ewald thinks (Isr. Gesch. III, 2:370, n.), or the lower one near Jericho, as the route through the center of the country, or (as is preferable) that through the Gbor, is chosen. Josephus omits the name in his version of the passage. It is a gratuitous supposition of Ewald's that the Galilee which Josephus introduces is a corruption of Galgalaa view, however, which is favored by the reading in the margin of the above text, and which is adopted by Michaelis. SEE GILGAL 3.

⇒See also the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.