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Bible Encyclopedias
Gilead
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
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- District, mountain, and city east of the Jordan. The name "Gilead" in Genesis 31:48 is explained by popular etymology to mean "heap of witness," in connection with the story of the heap of stones which Laban and Jacob piled up as a sign of their covenant. In the Old Testament "Gilead" sometimes designates a district or mountain, sometimes a city. The mountain of Gilead is found, forinstance, in Deuteronomy 3:12; Genesis 31:21 et seq.; Song of Solomon 4:1; comp. 6:5. The district of Gilead has an undetermined boundary. It often designates in general the land east of the Jordan in so far as it was inhabited by Israelites; e.g., Numbers 32:29; Joshua 22:9; 2 Samuel 2:9; Amos 1:3. Hence, in an ideal sense it includes the northernmost part of the land east of the Jordan as far as Hermon (Deuteronomy 34:1; comp. the obscure passage in 2 Kings 10:33, which is probably the result of the combination of several original variant accounts). The same explanation may be given for I Macc. 5:20 et seq., where the regions occupied by Jews north of the Yarmuk are designated as "Gilead." In other places Gilead includes only the territory between the Yarmuk and Moab (e., 'Ajlun and the northern Balḳa); thus, for example, Deuteronomy 3:10; 2 Kings 10:33. Here the land is called "all the land of Gilead," because it was divided into two parts which were separated by the Jabbok (comp. Deuteronomy 3:16; Joshua 12:2). Each of the two parts is called "the half of Gilead" (comp. Deuteronomy 3:12 et seq.), or simply "Gilead" (e.g., Joshua 12:6 and elsewhere; Numbers 32:1). Sometimes the land of Jazer in the south is explicitly distinguished from Gilead (Numbers 32:1; 2 Samuel 24:5). The inhabitants of Gilead were Reuben, Gad, and a part of Manasseh. Nevertheless, Gilead is mentioned alongside of Reuben in Judges 5:17; of Gad in 1 Samuel 14:7; of Manasseh in Judges 11:29; Psalms 60:9 (A. V. 7), 108:9 (A. V. 8). It is difficult to decide with which part of the trans-Jordanic land the name "Gilead" was originally associated. At the present day there is a Mount Jal'ad, two hours south of the Jabbok; but this offers no proof of conditions in Biblical times, and the account in Genesis 31 argues against such a location.
- City mentioned in Hosea 6:8, and perhaps in Judges 10:17. It is now identified with the ruins Jal'ud upon the mountain mentioned above.
Bibliography:
- Smend, in Stade's Zeitschrift, 22:145.
E. G. H.
F. Bu.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
These files are public domain.
Bibliography Information
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Gilead'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/g/gilead.html. 1901.
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Gilead'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/g/gilead.html. 1901.
