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GILEAD

(Heb. gilʿāḏ)

(PLACE)

A mountainous region in Transjordan. Its name was derived from a grandson of Manasseh (Num. 26:29). Nothing more is known about Gilead or his father Machir.

The Gilead clan may have settled in the mountainous area of Transjordan because of an earlier tribal tradition and the similarity between their name and the older name of the region (Galeed; Gen. 31:47). Judging from the many stories set in Gilead and from the fact that the Gilead clan gave its name to the entire region, one can assume that the Gileadites were the strongest family within the tribe of Manasseh. Sometimes Gilead is portrayed as a region on par with Bashan (Deut. 4:43; Josh. 17:5; 1 Chr. 5:16), while at other times Transjordan, as a whole, is referred to as Gilead (e.g., Num. 32:26, 29; Josh. 22:9, 13, 15, 32; Judg. 10:8; 20:1; 2 Sam. 2:9; Hos. 6:8). On occasion, the name Gilead was even used in place of the tribal name Manasseh (Judg. 5:17; Ps. 60:7[MT 9]; 108:8[9]) or was, at the least, an alternate name for the tribe (Judg. 12:4). During the period of the judges, Gilead was not only the strongest Israelite group in Transjordan but was probably, at times, the strongest Israelite contingent in all of Canaan (Judg. 10:3; 12:7). The Gileadites were strong enough to defeat the Ammonites and at least one interfering Israelite tribe under the leadership of Jephthah (Judg. 11:32-33; 12:4)

Due to the region’s changing political fortunes, the exact geographical boundaries of Gilead are difficult to determine and are not specifically delineated. Nevertheless, Gilead proper was centered in the mountainous Transjordanian hill country WNW of modern Amman and loosely associated with the Jabbok River. Its northern neighbor was Bashan. Certainly its heartland was hill country (Gen. 31:21, 23; Cant. 4:1; Jer. 22:6). From the trees of these mountains came a soothing salve that Jeremiah compares to the healing power of God (Jer. 8:22; 46:11; cf. Gen. 37:25).

The mountainous territory was often a place of salvation or safety for the faithful. It was to Gilead that Jacob fled from Laban (Gen. 31:21), from where the Ishmaelites came and saved Joseph from the hands of his brothers (37:25), where some people hid from the Philistines in the days of Saul (1 Sam. 13:7), and where David won his victory over Absalom (2 Sam. 17:26).

The prophet Elijah is probably the most famous Gileadite (1 Kgs. 17:1). Although no story featuring Elijah occurs in Gilead, that he was recognized as a prophet of Yahweh by Cisjordan Israelites suggests that Gilead remained Israelite territory until at least the mid-9th century b.c. In the 9th-8th centuries, shortly after the time of Elijah, Gilead was no longer an independent Israelite territory (2 Kgs. 10:33; 15:29). According to the prophet Hosea, Gilead had become a place of evildoers (Hos. 6:8; 12:11[12]). It was predicted that Gilead would eventually be returned to Israelite control (Obad. 1:19; Mic. 7:14; Zech. 10:10).

Bibliography. Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia, 1979), 38-39; D. Baly, The Geography of the Bible, rev. ed. (New York, 1974), 219-25.

David Merling

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GILEAD

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)