(Hebrew) Geliylah

The word “Galilee” (Strong’s #1551) is derived from the Hebrew word geliylah (#1552) which means “a circuit or region.”

Important Translations

Isaiah 9:1

Isaiah 9:1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.

In Hebrew the proper noun and the noun which it is derived from are spelled with the same characters, but with slightly different vowel points. An example where confusion could be noted is in Isaiah 9:1, where in the Palaeo-Hebrew of Isaiah’s time, without vowels or modern Hebrew vowel points, and in all upper-case letters as was the custom, made the two words for Galilee and Geliylah (which means circuit or region) indistinguishable. It is evident that they could easily be confused, but the sea of Galilee was never called such in Old Testament scripture but was instead referred to as the Sea of Chinerroth.

Matthew 4:15 (CNT) "Land of Zaboulon, and land of Nephthalim, the way of the sea, opposite the Jordan, circuit of the nations,