Mount Gilead
Mount Gilead is a mountain mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Galilee in modern-day Israel. Known today as Mount Gilboa. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Mount Gilead appears in Judges 7:3, where God instructs Gideon to reduce the size of his army before the battle against the Midianites. The Lord told Gideon to proclaim to the people: "Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and depart from Mount Gilead." Twenty-two thousand men departed, leaving only ten thousand. This passage is the sole reference to Mount Gilead in this specific context, and its identification has puzzled scholars, since the broader region of Gilead lies east of the Jordan while Gideon's encampment at the spring of Harod was in the Jezreel Valley near Mount Gilboa. Some scholars suggest this is a variant name for Mount Gilboa itself, while others propose a textual emendation or a localized use of the name Gilead in the western territory. Regardless of the geographical puzzle, the narrative powerfully demonstrates God's sovereign method of delivering Israel through weakness rather than human military strength, a theme echoed throughout Scripture.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The identification of Mount Gilead in Judges 7:3 remains one of the more debated geographical questions in biblical studies. If identified with Mount Gilboa, the site is the well-known mountain range southeast of the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. The spring of Harod, where Gideon's army encamped and where God tested the soldiers by how they drank water (Judges 7:4-7), is identified with Ein Harod at the foot of Mount Gilboa. This spring still flows today and is part of a national park. The proximity of Ein Harod to Mount Gilboa supports the theory that Mount Gilead in this passage is an alternate designation for Gilboa or a nearby feature.
Verse Appearances (1)
Judg
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]