Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
What Samuel called for was a ceremony to renew the Mosaic Covenant. [Note: Klaus Baltzer, The Covenant Formulary, pp. 66-68; William J. Dumbrell, Covenant and Creation, p. 135; and Lyle M. Eslinger, Kingship of God in Crisis, pp. 37, 383-428.] It was to be similar to those that had taken place in Joshua’s day (Joshua 8, 24), in which the nation would dedicate itself afresh to Yahweh and His Law as a nation (cf. Deuteronomy 29). As mentioned earlier, it is not clear whether Gilgal refers to the Gilgal near Jericho or another Gilgal a few miles north of Bethel. [Note: See my comments on 7:16.] A Gilgal north of Bethel would have been closer since most of the activities recorded in these first chapters of 1 Samuel (at Ramah, Gibeah, Mizpah, etc.) were all on the Benjamin plateau near Bethel. Yet the Gilgal near Jericho was the Israelites’ first camp after they entered the Promised Land, and the place where they first renewed the covenant in the land (Joshua 4-5). For this reason, that site would have stimulated the people’s remembrance of God’s faithfulness to them and His plans for them as a united nation. Hopefully further discoveries will enable us solve the puzzle of which Gilgal this was.