Migdal-gad

Migdal-gad ("tower of Gad") appears once in Scripture in Joshua's catalog of Judah's second Shephelah district: "Zenan, and Hadashah, and Migdal-gad, And Dilean, and Mizpeh, and Joktheel, Lachish, and Bozkath, and Eglon" (Joshua 15:37-39). The "tower" element marks it as a fortified watch-post in the contested lowlands between the central Judean highlands and the Philistine coastal plain. The town's name preserves the memory of an early settlement by the tribe of Gad (or the Canaanite god Gad), though by the time of Joshua it had been incorporated into the Judean inheritance. Most scholars identify the site with Khirbet el-Mejdeleh about two miles southwest of Beit Jibrin.