Question X. Whether, together with the tabernacle, the camp of the Israelites [was] transferred to Shiloh from Gilgal?

Masius somewhat doubts [it], but so that he rather affirms [it] — and rightly. For [it] is affirmed by Josephus (bk. 5 of the Antiquities), the Jewish Rabbis, Abulensis, [and] Cajetan. And the reasons which, above (q. 6), proved the tabernacle’s transfer, the same [reasons] nearly also establish the transposition of the camp. And than these words of v. 9, “They returned to Joshua into the camp [at] Shiloh,” what [is] clearer? [It] happened that the rather long stay of the camp at Gilgal, which had been [the case] hitherto, seems to have given no small occasion to the indolence and torpor which is reproved by Joshua in this chapter (v. 3): because the place was very pleasant, and full of various conveniences, and almost of delights — as is clear from those [things] which I said elsewhere about the Jericho territory (ch. 2, q.; ch. 13, q. 2 & 3). Then the Israelites had so built, procured, and arranged everything for themselves there, that they might live peacefully, securely, and pleasantly in that same place; and they delighted in that camp as [in] a city in which they ought to dwell perpetually. Most prudently, therefore, the commander Joshua decided [that] this handle [occasion] of the sloth and sluggishness by which [they] were wasting away [was] to be cut off, and the place [was] to be changed. And from a sterile and dry soil, plants are transplanted into [one] more rich and more juicy, so that they may bring more fruit — but in men the contrary change [is] often better.