Humiliating God
Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the shame of Egypt from you.” So the name of that place is called [a]Gilgal to this day. Joshua 5:9 NASB
Shame – Recently we investigated the two Hebrew words, ḥerpâ (reproach) and gālal (to roll away). We discovered that the request to circumcise the male population a second time was really aimed at circumcising those male children born during the forty-year sojourn in the desert whose parents used a technical excuse not to follow the commandment. In that investigation we commented on the idea of shame.
The Hebrew is ḥerpâ. “The word means ‘to reproach,’ with the specific connotation of casting blame or scorn on someone.”[1] The translation “shame” isn’t quite right. Shame implies disgrace and humiliation, an inner embarrassment or scandal. It does not necessarily involve blame. Reproach, on the other hand, means rebuke, reprimand, and censure. It does involve blame. God’s statement does not mean Israel was humiliated and embarrassed while in Egypt. Far from it. God protected and prospered Israel in Egypt. But what did happen in Egypt was Israel’s absorption of Egyptian thinking, as evidenced by the Golden Calf incident and other circumstances in the wilderness. Now God removes all of that blameworthy behavior. The vows have been renewed. The generation entering the Land no longer carries Egypt with it. That time is finished, and the second circumcision demonstrates that this is the case.
Basically, the word means “to reproach,” with the specific connotation of casting blame or scorn on someone. . . it is the antithesis of kābēd (honor) and may be understood as disgrace or dishonor.[2]
Following this investigation we examined the verb, gālal.
The umbrella of meanings include “commit, remove, trust, run down, seek occasion, wallow, roll, and roll down, away or together.”[3] In general, the term is about rolling some object “on, upon, away, in, against, from, together, unto, or down.”[4] The derivatives include (not surprisingly) “wheel” and “cylinder.” But the derivatives also include “dung” and “idols.”
There’s another possible interpretation for this unusual statement. Since it is God who makes this statement, perhaps we should understand “rolled away the shame” as something that applies to Him. Is it the shame put upon the people by the Egyptians (“You’re just like us – you do the same things we do – you’re aren’t special) or is it the shame of their behavior in Egypt (seen in the Golden Calf scene – Egyptomania) or is it that the actions of this group of Israelites while in Egypt sullied God’s name? He was blasphemed, humiliated by what happened in Egypt. If the word means “to cast blame on someone or something” then isn’t this about blaming God instead of trusting Him? That’s what these people who were affected by Egyptian thinking did in the desert. They are the blamers, casting aspersions on God for their condition. The reproach isn’t theirs. It’s His. By this act of circumcision, the community acknowledges that God is their ruler and they are officially part of His kingdom. They carry His mark of identity. They are no longer physical reminders of the blamers. They are now all physically aligned with the covenant community.
Consider the fact that Gilgal is the name of the place where this “second” circumcision occurred. “Metaphorically, gālal is used for rolling oneself on the Lord and so to trust the Lord (Ps 22:8 [H 9]) or to commit one’s behavior or life to the Lord (Ps 37:5; Prov 16:3) or remove such non-material things as reproach and contempt (Ps 119:22).[5] gālal becomes a symbolic expression of trust. The thought is to “roll one’s trouble” upon someone or away from oneself. This is the same place where Samuel took the people to initiate the monarchy, (1 Samuel 11), a place where they were supposed to return to the Covenant commitment, the same place where Saul loses the kingdom (1 Samuel 13). Perhaps the verb is a play on words. Something is put at a distance at the same time that something else is put in place. God’s humiliation is replaced by trust. The wheel turns and the disobedience returns.
God does not say, “I have removed, erased, expunged.” Instead He says, “rolled away.” The blight still exists but is no longer attached. “Rolled away” contains the idea of something that can be turned, something circular. The “reproach” is put at a distance, like a wheel turning. But a wheel turning always comes back to the same spot on the wheel. Is this like the Hebrew idea of time? The reproach is turned away but still part of the cycloidal arrangement. Notice He does not say, “I have forgiven the offense, the reproach.” It has been removed, but not forgotten. God does not count it against the present generation, but the possibility of return remains.
Topical Index: gālal, roll, wheel, ḥerpâ, reproach, Joshua 5:9
[1] Mccomiskey, T. E. (1999). 749 חָרַף. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 325). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Kalland, E. S. (1999). 353 גָּלַל. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 162). Chicago: Moody Press.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
