gulgolet

The standard lexica treat גֻּלְגֹּלֶת as one feminine noun with two related uses: the skull as a physical object (Judg 9:53; 2 Kgs 9:35; 1 Chr 10:10) and the head as a distributive counting unit (BDB, HALOT, DCH, s.v.). The form is generally analyzed as a reduplicated derivative of גלל, "to roll," hence "the round thing," a derivation the lexica report without pressing it semantically. The counting use falls into two fixed idioms. The suffixed plural לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָם belongs to the census formula of Numbers 1 and 1 Chronicles 23, standing alongside בְּמִסְפַּר שֵׁמוֹת, "by the number of names," and specifying enumeration of individuals as against the household and clan groupings named in the same clause. The singular לַגֻּלְגֹּלֶת with a following quantity distributes the manna ration (Exod 16:16), the half shekel sanctuary levy of the census (Exod 38:26), and the five shekel redemption price for the firstborn in excess of the Levites (Num 3:47). Commentators on Numbers, notably Levine and Milgrom, treat this last group in connection with the census levy and the danger attached to numbering the people. The idiom persists in later Hebrew, where gulgolet designates the poll tax (Jastrow, s.v.). The Aramaic cognate גֻּלְגָּלְתָּא lies behind Γολγοθᾶ, which the Gospels gloss as κρανίου τόπος, "place of a skull" (BDAG, s.v. Γολγοθᾶ, κρανίον).