Thegoad is atraditional farming implement, used to spur or guide livestock, usuallyoxen, which are pulling aplow or acart; used also to round up cattle. It is a type of long stick with a pointed end, also known as thecattle prod.
The word is fromMiddle Englishgode, fromOld Englishgād.
In Sophocles'sOedipus 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 asiconographic devices and may be seen in theelephant goad (Sanskrit:𑀅𑀗𑁆𑀓𑀼𑀰,romanized: aṅkuśa,lit. 'hook') in the hand ofGanesha, for example.
InJudges 3:31, theshophetShamgar, son of Anath, kills six hundredPhilistines 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 ofhis conversion beforeHerod Agrippa II inActs 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 theActs of the Apostles also use the same phrase inActs 9:5 in somemanuscripts.
In theLatin alphabet, the letterL is derived from theSemiticcrook or goad which stood for/l/. This may originally have been based on an Egyptianhieroglyph that was adapted by Semites for alphabetic purposes. Pollack (2004: p. 146), in discussing 'Lamed, Path 22' the path fromGevurah toTiferet, Justice, in the pathworking of the esotericKabbalah, 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 togoad 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]