Gilead was a mountainous, wooded region east of the Jordan River, today part of northern Jordan. Its fertile, well watered hills were ideal for raising livestock, which drew the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh to settle there.
The name appears when Jacob, fleeing from Laban, was overtaken by him on these hills. There the two made a covenant of peace and piled up stones as a witness to the agreement, and Jacob called the mount Galeed, mount of witness.
Centuries later, Gilead became the stage for wars and Israelite leadership. It was there that the elders sought out Jephthah to free the people from the Ammonites, and it was there too that the Gileadites and the Ephraimites clashed in a conflict marked by the test of the word Shibboleth.
The region also gave the world the prophet Elijah, called the Tishbite of Gilead, and it became known for an aromatic balm used as medicine. Centuries later, the prophet Jeremiah would use that balm as an image of the healing that only God can give to a wounded people.
