GELILOTH (1-69., pl. of ;-64, literally dr , • : cles or circuits, from the root 991 to roll). It occurs in the Hebrew Bible five tImes (the sing. form once besides), twice in reference to the Philis tines, Josh. xiii. 2, A. V. borders of the Philistines,' LXX. Opla ‘1,0.10-7-Leibt; Joel iv. 3 [A. V. iii. 4], coasts of Palestine,' I,XX. PaNcXaia ciXXo0Xcep- where Henderson remarks that the Geliloth were properly provinces,' i.e. the five of the Philistines ; —twice in relation to the Jordan, Josh. xxii. to, ; A. V., borders of Jordan ;' LXX., PaNaCo3 ro0 'Iopactvou ;—once absolutely, Josh. xviii. 17 ; where alone the word appears in the A. V. ; the border of the tribe of Benjamin was drawn from the north and went forth to En-Shemesh, and went forth toward Geliloth, which is over against, nj,), the going rip of Adummim.' The LXX. has here PaXeNth0; the Vulg. tumuks. As in the description of the northern boundary of Judah, which was identical at this part with the south of Benjamin, Cilgal is substituted for Gehloth, with the same specification as over against, rth, Ad.
ummim (Josh. xv. 7) ; and as Geliloth never occurs again in this locality (?) it has been con cluded by some that Gilgal is the correct reading (See Smith's Dict. of the Bible). But Canon Stan ley remarks : A place called Geliloth is men tioned (Josh. xviii. 17), which, as far as the imper fect indications of the text allow, seems to be close to the Arabah or Jordan valley' (Sin. and Pal., 4S9, 3d ed.) The singular form of the word occurs Ezek. xlvii. 8—` These waters flow forth r19,9miN,
towards the circle, or border, the eastern (namely, of the Jordan), and descend on the Arabah, and come to the sea, and having come into the sea, its waters shall even be healed' [ARABAH]. Here we gladly avail ourselves of Dr. Stanley's aid Cic car and Galati]. These two curious terms (in the E. V. rendered ' plain,' or region, though occa sionally with a wider application), usually denote the Jordan valley, applied respectively to its lower and upper stage. It is tempting to derive this usage (with Reland, p. 274) from the windings of the stream ; and it is not, at any rate, impossible that this may have suggested or confirmed the in variable use of ciccar' for the circular oasis of Jericho and the five cities. In later times, no doubt, the words were taken merely as provincial terms for `region,' and as such were translated in the LXX., and in the N. T., it 7reptxwpos, ' the sur rounding neighbourhood" (Sin. and Pal., p. 284). ' Geliloth is distinguished from Ciccar, which will rather mean the circle of vegetation or dwellings, gathered round the bends and reaches of the river. The word may perhaps find an analogy in the Scotch term links,' which has both the meanings of Geliloth, being used of the snake-like windings of a stream, as well as with the derived meaning of a coast or shore' (Sin. and Pal., p. 489).—I. J.