The goad is a traditional farming implement, used to spur or guide livestock, usually oxen, which are pulling a plow or a cart; used also to round up cattle. It is a type of long stick with a pointed end, also known as the cattle prod.
The word is from Middle English gode, from Old English gād.
In Sophocles's Oedipus Rex , Oedipus's father Laius tried to kill his son with a goad when they accidentally met at a crossroads.
Goads in various guises are used as iconographic devices and may be seen in the elephant goad (Sanskrit : 𑀅𑀗𑁆𑀓𑀼𑀰, romanized: aṅkuśa, lit. 'hook') in the hand of Ganesha, for example.
In Judges 3:31, the shophet Shamgar, son of Anath, kills six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. Tischler and McHenry (2006: p. 251) in discussing the biblical account of 'goad', note that "In the early days, before Israel had its metal industries, farmers had to rely on the Philistines to sharpen their goads, as well as other metal tools, the plowshares and mattocks, forks, and axes (1 Sam. 13:20)."
The image of prodding the reluctant or lazy creature made this a useful metaphor for sharp urgings, such as the prick of conscience, the nagging of a mate, or the "words of the wise," which are "firmly embedded nails" in human minds (Ecclesiastes 12:11-12). [1]
Paul the Apostle, recounting the story of his conversion before Herod Agrippa II in Acts 26:14, told of a voice he heard saying ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ Some versions of the actual account of his conversion earlier in the Acts of the Apostles also use the same phrase in Acts 9:5 in some manuscripts.
In the Latin alphabet, the letter L is derived from the Semitic crook or goad which stood for /l/. This may originally have been based on an Egyptian hieroglyph that was adapted by Semites for alphabetic purposes. Pollack (2004: p. 146), in discussing 'Lamed, Path 22' the path from Gevurah to Tiferet, Justice, in the pathworking of the esoteric Kabbalah, states:
We switch sides now and bring the power of Gevurah to the center. Lamed means 'goad' and in particular an ox-goad, as if we use the power of Gevurah to goad that Aleph ox, the silent letter, into a more tangible physical existence in the heart of the tree [of life]. Lamed begins the Hebrew words for both "learn" and "teach," and so encompasses the most Kabbalist of activities, study. Kabbalah has never been a path of pure sensation, but always has used study to goad us into higher consciousness. Lamed, alone of the Hebrew alphabet, reaches above the height of all the other letters. Through learning we extend ourselves above ordinary awareness. [2]
Saul was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of the Israelites from a scattered tribal society ruled by various judges to organized statehood.
Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venerated as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In addition to his role in the Bible, Samuel is mentioned in Jewish rabbinical literature, in the Christian New Testament, and in the second chapter of the Quran. He is also treated in the fifth through seventh books of Antiquities of the Jews, written by the Jewish scholar Josephus in the first century. He is first called "the Seer" in 1 Samuel 9:9.
The Witch of Endor is a woman who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was consulted by Saul to summon the spirit of the prophet Samuel. Saul wished to receive advice on defeating the Philistines in battle, after prior attempts to consult God through sacred lots and other means had failed. However, what was summoned delivered a prophecy of doom against Saul and his army, who were defeated. This event occurs in the First Book of Samuel; it is also mentioned in the deuterocanonical Book of Sirach.
The Tribe of Dan was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, according to the Torah. According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe initially settled in the hill lands bordering Judah and the Philistines but migrated north due to pressure of their enemies, settling at Laish, near Mount Hermon.
Michmas was an Israelite and Jewish town located in the highlands north of Jerusalem. According to the Hebrew Bible, it belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin. It was the setting of the biblical Battle of Michmash, recounted in 1 Samuel 14. Michmas was inhabited during the Second Temple period, when, according to the Mishnah, its fine wheat was brought to the Temple.
In the Zohar, Lurianic Kabbalah, and Hermetic Qabalah, the qlippoth, are the representation of evil or impure spiritual forces in Jewish mysticism, the opposites of the Sefirot. The realm of evil is called Sitra Achra in Kabbalistic texts.
Michal was, according to the first Book of Samuel, a princess of the United Kingdom of Israel; the younger daughter of King Saul, she was the first wife of David, who later became king, first of Judah, then of all Israel, making her queen consort of Israel.
Lamedh or lamed is the twelfth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Arabic lāmل, Aramaic lāmaḏ 𐡋, Hebrew lāmeḏל, Phoenician lāmd 𐤋, and Syriac lāmaḏ ܠ. Its sound value is.
Aleph is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Arabic ʾalifا, Aramaic ʾālap 𐡀, Hebrew ʾālefא, North Arabian 𐪑, Phoenician ʾālep 𐤀, Syriac ʾālap̄ ܐ. It also appears as South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez ʾälef አ.
Binah is the third sephira on the kabbalistic Tree of Life. It sits on the level below Keter, across from Chokmah and directly above Gevurah. It is usually given four paths: from Keter, Chokmah, to Gevurah and Tiphereth.
The tree of life is a diagram used in Rabbinical Judaism in kabbalah and other mystical traditions derived from it. It is usually referred to as the "kabbalistic tree of life" to distinguish it from the tree of life that appears alongside the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Genesis creation narrative and well as the archetypal tree of life found in many cultures.
The Philistine language is the extinct language of the Philistines. Very little is known about the language, of which a handful of words survived as cultural loanwords in Biblical Hebrew, describing specifically Philistine institutions, like the seranim, the "lords" of the Philistine five cities ("pentapolis"), or the 'argáz receptacle, which occurs in 1 Samuel 6 and nowhere else, or the title padî.
A shepherd's crook is a long and sturdy stick with a hook at one end, often with the point flared outwards, used by a shepherd to manage and sometimes catch sheep. In addition, the crook may aid in defending against attack by predators. When traversing rough terrain, a crook is an aid to balance. Shepherds may also use the long implement to part thick undergrowth when searching for lost sheep or potential predators.
Pardes is a Kabbalistic theory of Biblical exegesis first advanced by Moses de León, adapting the popular "fourfold" method of medieval Christianity. The term, sometimes also rendered PaRDeS, means "orchard" when taken literally, but is used in this context as a Hebrew acronym formed from the initials of the following four approaches:
Jewish mythology is the body of myths associated with Judaism. Elements of Jewish mythology have had a profound influence on Christian mythology and on Islamic mythology, as well as on Abrahamic culture in general. Christian mythology directly inherited many of the narratives from the Jewish people, sharing in common the narratives from the Old Testament. Islamic mythology also shares many of the same stories; for instance, a creation-account spaced out over six periods, the legend of Abraham, the stories of Moses and the Israelites, and many more.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Battle of Michmash was fought between Israelites under Jonathan, son of King Saul and a force of Philistines at Michmash, a town east of Bethel and south of Migron.
Acts 9 is the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records Saul's conversion and the works of Saint Peter. The book containing this chapter is anonymous but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.
2 Samuel 5 is the fifth chapter of the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the second part of Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains the account of David's reign in Hebron and Jerusalem. This is within a section comprising 1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 5 which records the rise of David as the king of Israel, and a section comprising 2 Samuel 2–8 which deals with the period when David set up his kingdom.
1 Samuel 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains Saul's act of disobedience after his coronation. This is within a section comprising 1 Samuel 7–15 which records the rise of the monarchy in Israel and the account of the first years of King Saul.
Judges 3 is the third chapter of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter records the activities of the first three judges, Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar, belonging to a section comprising Judges 3:1 to 5:31.