# What does the word "Gilead" call to mind for you?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-gilead-call-to-mind-for-you/685317>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 4, 2014, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-gilead-call-to-mind-for-you/685317 "2014-04-04T03:33:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-gilead-call-to-mind-for-you/685317/81 "2014-04-13T07:57:54Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> Apparently I’ve conflated a commentary with the actual scripture there, as I could have sworn that Jepthah just turned her over to the temple, and that this was used as a precedent for what happens if you accidentally offer your child as a sacrifice.

That’s a maybe. The text (as  
[quoted in the Wiki]  
([Jephthah - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jephthah))) says: And so Jephthah “did with her according to his vow that he had made” (Judges 11:39).

The same Wiki page discusses the alternate interpretations of that text. It seems that later interpreters, in the 12th through 14th century, attempted to find some less barbaric meaning in the text.

> [@Jephthah Wikipedia page](#):
>
> Since at least the 12th or 13th century, Jewish scholars, among them the compiler and summarizer David Kimhi (1160–1235) and Levi Ben Gershon (1288–1344), have taken fulfilment of Jephthah’s vow as meaning that he only kept her in seclusion.[9] This view is put forward also by Christian scholars from the 14th century[10] and continues to be propounded today, as by Solomon Landers, who considers it most likely that the fate of Jephthath’s daughter was perpetual virginity or solitary confinement.

See the Wiki for other interpretations.

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**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-gilead-call-to-mind-for-you/685317/82 "2014-04-13T09:41:46Z")

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I think of the three astrologers when they sought out the Virgin Mandy to present her infant with a balm. Mandy was rightly cautious fearing the balm might bite.

The three wise men from the east cherished the balm (a valuable unguent called myrrh) and therefore they came from Gilead.

Easy.

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