# Goad > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Goad > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Goad.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goad > Source revision: 1355006651 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Tool used to guide livestock in motion For other uses, see [Goad (disambiguation)](/source/Goad_(disambiguation)). Look up ***[goad](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/goad)*** in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. The **goad** is a [traditional farming](/source/Traditional_agriculture) implement, used to spur or guide livestock, usually [oxen](/source/Ox), which are pulling a [plow](/source/Plow) or a [cart](/source/Cart); used also to round up cattle. It is a type of long stick with a pointed end, also known as the [cattle prod](/source/Cattle_prod). The word is from [Middle English](/source/Middle_English) *gode*, from [Old English](/source/Old_English) *gād*. In [Sophocles](/source/Sophocles)'s *[Oedipus Rex](/source/Oedipus_Rex)*, [Oedipus](/source/Oedipus)'s father [Laius](/source/Laius) tried to kill his son with a goad when they accidentally met at a [crossroads](/source/Intersection_(road)). ## Religious significance Goads in various guises are used as [iconographic](/source/Iconographic) devices and may be seen in the [elephant goad](/source/Elephant_goad) ([Sanskrit](/source/Sanskrit_language): 𑀅𑀗𑁆𑀓𑀼𑀰, [romanized](/source/Romanization_of_Sanskrit): *aṅkuśa*, [lit.](/source/Literal_translation) 'hook') in the hand of [Ganesha](/source/Ganesha), for example. In [Judges 3](/source/Judges_3):31, the [shophet](/source/Hebrew_Bible_judges) [Shamgar](/source/Shamgar), son of Anath, kills six hundred [Philistines](/source/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](/source/Ecclesiastes_12):11-12).[1] [Ploughing](/source/Plough) with [oxen](/source/Ox): a miniature from an early-16th-century [manuscript](/source/Manuscript) held at the [British Museum](/source/British_Museum). The ploughman on the right appears to carry a goad. The ox on the left appears to react to it. Note the spike or prod at the end of this goad. [Paul the Apostle](/source/Paul_the_Apostle), recounting the story of [his conversion](/source/Conversion_of_Paul_the_Apostle) before [Herod Agrippa II](/source/Herod_Agrippa_II) in [Acts 26](/source/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](/source/Acts_of_the_Apostles) also use the same phrase in [Acts 9](/source/Acts_9):5 in some [manuscripts](/source/Biblical_manuscripts). In the [Latin alphabet](/source/Latin_alphabet), the letter **[L](/source/L)** is derived from the [Semitic](/source/Semitic_languages) [crook](/source/Crook_and_flail) or goad which stood for /[l](/source/Voiced_alveolar_lateral_approximant)/. This may originally have been based on an Egyptian [hieroglyph](/source/Hieroglyph) that was adapted by Semites for alphabetic purposes. Pollack (2004: p. 146), in discussing 'Lamed, Path 22' the path from [Gevurah](/source/Gevurah) to [Tiferet](/source/Tiferet), Justice, in the pathworking of the esoteric [Kabbalah](/source/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] ## See also - [Mazzarella](/source/Mazzarella) - [Shepherd's crook](/source/Shepherd's_crook) - [Cattle prod](/source/Cattle_prod) - [Crozier](/source/Crozier) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Tischler, Nancy M. P.; McHenry, Ellen J. (2006). [*All Things in the Bible: An Encyclopedia of the Biblical World*](https://books.google.com/books?id=zMVbuD633XEC&q=egyptian+goad&pg=PA250). Illustrated by Ellen J. McHenry. (illustrated ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 251. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-313-33082-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-313-33082-4). Retrieved April 15, 2009. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** [Pollack, Rachel](/source/Rachel_Pollack) (2004). [*The Kabbalah Tree: A Journey of Balance & Growth*](https://books.google.com/books?id=Ztl-B6NxftAC&q=egyptian+goad&pg=PA146) (illustrated ed.). Llewellyn Worldwide. p. 146. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-7387-0507-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7387-0507-1). Retrieved April 15, 2009. - [Goading @ TheFreeDictionary](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/goading) v t e Prehistoric technology Prehistory Timeline Outline Stone Age Subdivisions New Stone Age Technology history Glossary Tools Farming Neolithic Revolution Founder crops New World crops Ard / plough Celt Digging stick Domestication Goad Irrigation Secondary products Sickle Terracing Food processing (Paleolithic diet) Fire Basket Cooking Earth oven Granaries Grinding slab Ground stone Hearth Aşıklı Höyük Qesem Cave Manos Metate Mortar and pestle Pottery Quern-stone Storage pits Hunting Arrow Boomerang throwing stick Bow and arrow history Nets Spear spear-thrower baton harpoon Schöningen woomera Projectile points Arrowhead Transverse Bare Island Cascade Clovis Cresswell Cumberland Eden Folsom Lamoka Manis Mastodon Plano Systems Game drive system Buffalo jump Toolmaking Earliest toolmaking Oldowan Acheulean Mousterian Aurignacian Clovis culture Cupstone Fire hardening Gravettian culture Hafting Hand axe Grooves Langdale axe industry Levallois technique Lithic core Lithic reduction analysis debitage flake Lithic technology Magdalenian culture Metallurgy Microblade technology Mining Prepared-core technique Solutrean industry Striking platform Tool stone Uniface Yubetsu technique Other tools Adze Awl bone Axe Bannerstone Blade prismatic Bone tool Bow drill Burin Canoe Oar Pesse canoe Chopper tool Cleaver Denticulate tool Fire plough Fire-saw Hammerstone Knife Microlith Quern-stone Racloir Rope Scraper side Stone tool Tally stick Weapons Wheel illustration Architecture Ceremonial Kiva Pyramid Standing stones megalith row Stonehenge Dwellings Neolithic architecture long house British megalith architecture Nordic megalith architecture Burdei Cave Cliff dwelling Dugout Hut Quiggly hole Jacal Longhouse Mudbrick Mehrgarh Pit-house Pueblitos Pueblo Rock shelter Blombos Cave Abri de la Madeleine Sibudu Cave Roundhouse Stilt house Alp pile dwellings Stone roof Wattle and daub Water management Check dam Cistern Flush toilet Reservoir Well Other architecture Archaeological features Broch Burnt mound fulacht fiadh Causewayed enclosure Tor enclosure Circular enclosure Goseck Cursus Henge Thornborough Megalithic architectural elements Midden Oldest extant buildings Timber circle Timber trackway Sweet Track Arts and culture Material goods Baskets Beadwork Beds Chalcolithic Clothing/textiles timeline Cosmetics Glue Hides shoes Ötzi Jewelry amber use Mirrors Pottery Cardium Cord-marked Grooved ware Jōmon Linear Unstan ware Sewing needle Weaving Wine winery wine press Prehistoric art Art of the Upper Paleolithic Art of the Middle Paleolithic Blombos Cave List of Stone Age art Bird stone Cairn Carved stone balls Cave paintings Cup and ring mark Geoglyph Hill figure Golden hats Guardian stones Gwion Gwion rock paintings painting pigment Megalithic art Petroform Petroglyph Petrosomatoglyph Pictogram Rock art Rock cupule Stone carving Sculpture Statue menhir Stone circle list British Isles and Brittany Venus figurine Prehistoric music Evolutionary musicology music archaeology Alligator drum Paleolithic flute Divje Babe flute Gudi Prehistoric religion Evolutionary origin of religion Paleolithic religion Spiritual drug use Burial Burial mounds Bowl barrow Round barrow Mound Builders culture U.S. sites Chamber tomb Cotswold-Severn Cist Dartmoor kistvaens Clava cairn Court cairn Cremation Dolmen Great dolmen Funeral pyre Gallery grave transepted wedge-shaped Grave goods Jar burial Kuyavian long barrows Long barrow unchambered Grønsalen Megalithic tomb Mummy Passage grave Rectangular dolmen Ring cairn Simple dolmen Stone box grave Tor cairn Unchambered long cairn Other cultural Archaeoastronomy sites lunar calendar Behavioral modernity Origin of language Prehistoric counting Prehistoric medicine trepanning Prehistoric warfare Symbols symbolism --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Goad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goad) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goad?action=history)). 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