Texts in Conversation
Joshua 11 mentions Baal Gad near Mount Lebanon, recalling Galeed in Genesis 31 where Jacob and Laban set up a stone boundary. This connects the family border of Genesis to Israel’s later national territory and to its ancestral and geographic themes.
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Genesis 31:47
Hebrew Bible
46 Then he said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they brought stones and put them in a pile. They ate there by the pile of stones. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 48 Laban said, “This pile of stones is a witness of our agreement today.” That is why it was called Galeed.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Joshua 11:17
Hebrew Bible
16 Joshua conquered the whole land, including the hill country, all the Negev, all the land of Goshen, the foothills, the rift valley, the hill country of Israel and its foothills, 17 from Mount Halak up to Seir, as far as Baal Gad in the Lebanon Valley below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and executed them. 18 Joshua campaigned against these kings for quite some time.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The name Laban in Hebrew means “white,” which is associated with the Valley of Lebanon (hallěbānôn) that defines the boundaries between Aram, Phoenicia, and Israel in Joshua 11:17. Likewise, the Hebrew reference gal‘ēd, “heap of witness,” in Genesis 31:47 to the pillar set up by Jacob and Laban as a boundary marker between their respective territories recalls the location Baal Gad (Hebrew, ba‘al gād) which also marks the boundary between Israel and Aram in Joshua 11:17 and the tribe of Gad that inhabits the region together with the half tribe of Manasseh ..."
Sweeney, Marvin A.
"The Legacy of Josiah in Isaiah 40–55" in Everson, A. Joseph, and Hyun Chul Paul Kim (eds.) The Desert will Bloom: Poetic Visions in Isaiah
(pp. 109-129) Society of Biblical Literature, 2009
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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