Galeed

Galeed (meaning: the heap of witness) was the name Jacob gave to the cairn of stones erected as a covenant monument between himself and his father-in-law Laban at their parting in the region of Gilead (Genesis 31:47–48). The name is the Hebrew form of what Laban called Jegar-sahadutha in Aramaic — both expressions meaning the same thing: a heap serving as a witness. The two men ate together beside the heap and made a covenant that neither would pass it to harm the other.

The name Galeed gave rise to or confirmed the name of the Transjordanian region known as Gilead, the territory east of the Jordan River where Jacob had traveled. The covenant witnessed by this stone heap marked the end of Jacob's sojourn with Laban and his permanent separation from the household of his uncle. Laban's parting charge — that God would watch between them when they were out of one another's sight — has entered Christian usage, though often in a devotional sense somewhat removed from its original context as a treaty boundary declaration.