Crossed is literally “came up out of” (Revised Standard Version). Many languages will have specialized terms for “crossing a river” or for “coming up out of a valley onto level land.” One must avoid a term which would suggest the crossing of the river in a boat or by some other water vehicle. For that reason the word generally used for “crossing” may not be satisfactory, and one may do better to select a term which means “cross a valley by foot.”

The day the people crossed into Canaan is given as the tenth day of the first month, that is, of Abib (later called Nisan). This month began with the first new moon occurring after the modern March 11, so the crossing occurred between March 21 and April 18, in modern terms. (Passover falls on 14 Nisan; see Exo 12.18.) Problems related to the months of the year are sometimes highly complex, and it may be useful to provide a cultural note, indicating that the reference is to the first month of the Jewish calendar year and to define it in terms of the international (or local) calendar year.

Gilgal is usually located about 4 kilometers east (really northeast) of Jericho (Revised Standard Version “on the east border of Jericho”). It may be useful to mark Gilgal as a “town”; if so, one would then translate “camped near the town of Gilgal.”

The Hebrew phrase translated “the east border” by Revised Standard Version probably indicates the eastern edge of the territory controlled by Jericho. Jericho was a walled city, and the text does not mean that the Israelites were camped right outside the city walls.

There at Gilgal Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan (see 4.8). As at 4.8, so here also it is necessary to clarify that Joshua himself was not the one who set up the twelve stones. Moreover, the indefinite passive taken from may be a problem. One may then need to translate “There Joshua caused (or, commanded) the men to set up the twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .