Where was Gilead?

Question

Where was Gilead?

Accepted Answer

Gilead was the hill country east of the Jordan, in today's north-western Jordan, between the Yarmuk in the north and the plateau of Moab in the south, cut in two by the gorge of the Jabbok. The map point stands in its middle, on the Jabbok at Penuel, one of the twin mounds of Tell edh-Dhahab, with Mahanaim on the other, about 63 km north-east of Jerusalem in a straight line. The name could mean the hills on either side of the Jabbok or all of Israel's land beyond the river, as in “From Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead”. It was a land of woods, pasture and spices. Reuben and Gad saw that “the place was a place for cattle” and asked for it, and Moses gave “half mount Gilead” to them and “the rest of Gilead” to the half-tribe of Manasseh; Ramoth-gilead, about 46 km north-east of the map point, was its border fortress against Damascus. The caravan that bought Joseph came “from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh”, and Jeremiah asks, “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” Elijah the Tishbite was “of the inhabitants of Gilead”. In 733–732 BC Tiglath-pileser III took Gilead and carried its people to Assyria. In New Testament times its north held the Decapolis cities of Gerasa, Pella and Gadara, and its south was Perea, the land of Herod Antipas beyond the Jordan. Today the hills round Ajloun, Jerash and Salt are still wooded with oak and pine.