the Berasit Hebrew Dictionary

גלגל

Traditionally, 'gelegel' is typically translated as “Gilgal” and refers to the name of the place on the banks of the Jordan river where the Israelites crossed into the promised land, as narrated in Joshua chapter 4.

Joshua describes the erection of 12 stone mexeb menhirs at the location to commemorate the occasion. Based on this narrative, scholarly consensus is that 'gelegel' mean “circle of stones”; despite the fact that in ancient Hebrew, the way to say “circle of stones” would be 'hog aben' or perhaps 'hog xor'. This may be a good indication of how much credence to lend to scholarly consensus.

According to Mauro Biglino, former translater for the Vatican, 'gelegel' (or as he pronounces it, 'galgal') means “a wheel that swirls”.¹⁾, often translated as “turbines” or “whirlwind”. (not to be confused with ceyer).

Under Mauro's interpretation 'gelegel' may be rendered “the place of the swirling wheels”. This harkens to the testimonies of Ezekiel 10, where a 'gelegel' appears to be connected mechanically with the kebed and the kerobim. We must note though that Ezekiel clearly states that his encounter took place near the banks fo not the Jordan, but the Euphrates river. Perhaps there were multiple similar encounters, and that the location of 'gilgal' was already known for such. This would be reminiscent of another location, “Bethel” which also depended on a pre-existing reputation for such encounters.

However, a more likely etymological explanation resting on the possible meanings of the root word gel suggests a more likely meaning of “pile of rejoicing”. This suggests that the stones were piled together rather than stood in a circle. This piling behavior is more typical of the type of stone “altars” constructed elsewhere in the texts.