Mizpah of Gilead

When Laban overtook Jacob “in the mountain of Gilead” (Genesis 31:23), the two made a covenant and gathered stones into a heap (Genesis 31:44–46). “Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed” (Genesis 31:47), Aramaic and Hebrew names that both mean heap of witness. It was also named Mizpah, meaning watchtower, for Laban said, “Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another” (Genesis 31:48–49).

The Mizpah of Gilead in Judges is probably the same place. There Israel camped against the Ammonites (Judges 10:17), Jephthah “spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah” (Judges 11:11), he “passed over Mizpah of Gilead” to fight Ammon (Judges 11:29), and he came home to Mizpah, where his daughter came out to meet him (Judges 11:34). Ramath Mizpeh on the border of Gad (Joshua 13:26) is probably the same place, and Hosea's rebuke, “you have been a snare at Mizpah” (Hosea 5:1), may refer to it. Some have identified it with Ramoth Gilead, the city of refuge, but that is uncertain, and its site is unknown.