Analyzing the difference

Today, treacle is the British equivalent of molasses, making the Coverdale version of this verse sound uncomfortably sticky. Both the Coverdale Bible and the later Bishops’ Bible, which picks up this language, have been called “the Treacle Bible” as a result. In translator Miles Coverdale’s defense, though, the word “treacle” originally meant a salve, or indeed a “balm”–an example of how language can change and sometimes undermine a translation. Galaad and Gilead are alternative spellings of the same Hebrew place name.