Gilead

Gilead covers the hill country east of the Jordan, the mountain by that same name, a city, and three persons in Israel's tribal genealogy. The region runs from the Arnon up to Bashan and is held by Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh; the mountain is where Jacob and Laban part and where Gideon dismisses the fearful; the city is named with Gilgal in Hosea's indictments; and the personal name belongs to a grandson of Manasseh, to the father of Jephthah, and to a chief of Gad. The region's pastures, its balm, its forests, and its border-status against Aram and Assyria all run together in the canon under one word.

The Region East of the Jordan

The first time Gilead is named as a tribal territory, it is good cattle land. The sons of Reuben and Gad "had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, look, the place was a place for cattle" (Nu 32:1), and they ask Moses for it. Moses' apportionment of the area places the northern half with Manasseh: "and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, even all Bashan" (De 3:13). At the end of his life Moses sees the same country from the top of Pisgah — "And [the Speech of] Yahweh showed him all the land of Gilead, to Dan" (De 34:1). The Chronicler later sums the eastern dwelling the same way: "and eastward he dwelt even to the entrance of the wilderness from the river Euphrates, because their cattle were multiplied in the land of Gilead" (1Ch 5:9). The grazing character of the country is the constant — Jeremiah's restoration oracle returns to it: "And I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead" (Jer 50:19).

The standing geographical formula puts Gilead at the head of the trans-Jordan territory: "from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan" (2Ki 10:33).

Reuben and Gad Expel the Hagrites

The Reubenites and Gadites, with the half-tribe of Manasseh, hold the country by force of arms. "The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow, and skillful in war, were forty and four thousand seven hundred and threescore, who were able to go forth to war" (1Ch 5:18). They take the country east: "And they made war with the Hagrites, with Jetur, and Naphish, and Nodab" (1Ch 5:19). The Chronicler reads the result theologically: "For there fell many slain, because the war was of God. And they dwelt in their stead until the captivity" (1Ch 5:22).

Jephthah and the Ammonite War

Gilead's recurring trouble across Judges is the war with the Ammonites, and its judge is the Gileadite Jephthah. Jair's earlier rule had already located thirty cities in the land: "And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth-jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead" (Jg 10:4). Jephthah's father is named Gilead, and the canonical introduction binds the man and the country: "Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a whore: and Gilead begot Jephthah" (Judges 11:1). The half-brothers reject him on that ground — "And Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, You will not inherit in our father's house; for you are the son of another woman" (Judges 11:2) — and the elders of Gilead later send for him to lead the muster against Ammon.

David's Refuge in Gilead

When Absalom takes Jerusalem, David's escape route runs east into Gilead. "Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they passed over the Jordan: by the morning light there lacked not one of them that had not gone over the Jordan" (2Sa 17:22), and "Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him" (2Sa 17:24). Absalom encamps with the army on the same side: "And Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead" (2Sa 17:26). The battle is fought in the Gileadite forest, and the king's son is caught in its branches: "And Absalom chanced to meet the slaves of David. And Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth; and the mule that was under him went on" (2Sa 18:9). Saul's earlier crisis runs the other way: "Now some of the Hebrews had gone over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but as for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling" (1Sa 13:7).

Elijah the Tishbite

The first verse of the Elijah cycle locates the prophet in Gilead: "And Elijah the Tishbite, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word" (1Ki 17:1).

Hazael, Tiglath-pileser, and the Loss of the East

The same eastern country is the first piece of Israel that empires take. Under Jehu's son the borders begin to shrink: "In those days Yahweh began to cut off from Israel: and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel" (2Ki 10:32), and the bounds named in the next verse are "from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead" (2Ki 10:33). Amos' first oracle sets the same blow under judgment: "Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron" (Am 1:3). When Assyria comes a generation later, Gilead is in the first list of captured towns: "In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria" (2Ki 15:29).

Spices, Balm, and Myrrh

Gilead exports an aromatic trade. The Ishmaelite caravan that buys Joseph is described in those terms: "And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and noticed a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt" (Ge 37:25). The balm becomes proverbial in Jeremiah: "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then hasn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" (Jer 8:22). The same image is reused against Egypt: "Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain you use many medicines; there is no healing for you" (Jer 46:11).

Figurative Use

Gilead's prosperity makes it a figure for a kingdom worth cherishing — and worth losing. Jeremiah addresses the Davidic house with the image and at once cancels it: "For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, [and] the head of Lebanon; [yet] surely I will make you a wilderness, [and] cities which are not inhabited" (Jer 22:6). Conversely, the restoration after Babylon is named in pastoral terms that put Gilead beside Carmel and Bashan: "And I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead" (Jer 50:19).

Mount Gilead

The mountain by the same name is the setting of three scenes. Jacob, fleeing Laban, "rose up, and passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead" (Ge 31:21); Laban "took his brothers with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and he stuck [closely] in the mountain of Gilead" (Ge 31:23); the overtaking is staged on the same height: "And Laban came up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain: and Laban with his brothers encamped in the mountain of Gilead" (Ge 31:25). Generations later Gideon dismisses the fearful from the same mountain: "Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand" (Judges 7:3). The Song of Songs reuses the mountain's slopes as a simile for hair: "Your hair is as a flock of goats, That lie along the side of mount Gilead" (So 4:1), repeated at So 6:5 — "Your hair is as a flock of goats, That lie along the side of Gilead."

The City of Gilead

Hosea names a city by the same name and stains it: "Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity; it is stained with blood" (Ho 6:8). The same prophet ties Gilead to Gilgal as a pair of corrupted worship-sites: "Is Gilead iniquity? They are altogether false; in Gilgal they sacrifice bullocks; yes, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the field" (Ho 12:11).

The Person Gilead, Grandson of Manasseh

Gilead also names a man — the son of Machir, the grandson of Manasseh, the founder of the Gileadite clan. The Numbers genealogy is explicit: "The sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites; and Machir begot Gilead; of Gilead, the family of the Gileadites" (Nu 26:29). The daughters of Zelophehad trace their line through him: "Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph" (Nu 27:1). Joshua repeats the same line and ties man to country: "And [this] was the lot for the tribe of Manasseh; for he was the firstborn of Joseph. As for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war, therefore he had Gilead and Bashan" (Jos 17:1); "But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters" (Jos 17:3). The Chronicler keeps the same ancestry under different headings: "And afterward Hezron entered the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he took [as wife] when he was threescore years old; and she bore him Segub" (1Ch 2:21); and again, "The sons of Manasseh: his wife bore Asriel. His concubine the Aramitess bore Machir the father of Gilead" (1Ch 7:14).

The Person Gilead, Father of Jephthah

A second Gilead is named as the father of Jephthah. The introduction of Jephthah's career, "Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a whore: and Gilead begot Jephthah" (Judges 11:1), distinguishes this Gilead from the Manassite ancestor; the verse that follows, "And Gilead's wife bore him sons" (Judges 11:2), gives him a household and a domestic conflict.

The Person Gilead, Chief of Gad

A third Gilead appears in the Gadite genealogy. The Chronicler lists "the sons of Abihail, the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz" (1Ch 5:14), placing this Gilead a few generations back in a Gadite line east of the Jordan.

Gilead in the Maccabean Wars

The Maccabean narrative returns to the same eastern country under Greek-Syrian pressure. "And the nations that were in Gilead, assembled themselves together against the Israelites who were in their quarters to destroy them: and they fled into the fortress of Datheman" (1Ma 5:9). Judas commissions his brothers and takes the eastern theater himself: "And Judas said to Simon his brother: Choose you men, and go, and deliver your brothers in Galilee: and I, and my brother Jonathan will go into the country of Gilead" (1Ma 5:17). The campaign ends with the whole Israelite community of Gilead brought back across the Jordan: "And Judas gathered together all the Israelites who were in the land of Gilead, from the least even to the greatest, and their wives, and children, and an army exceedingly great, to come into the land of Judah" (1Ma 5:45).