gerar Summary and Overview

a region; lodging-place, a very ancient town and district in the south border of Israel, which was ruled over by a king named Abimelech (Gen. 10:19; 20:1, 2). Abraham sojourned here, and perhaps Isaac was born in this place. Both of these patriarchs were guilty of the sin of here denying their wives, and both of them entered into a treaty with the king before they departed to Beersheba (21:23-34; 26). It seems to have been a rich pastoral country (2 Chr. 14:12-18). Isaac here reaped an hundred-fold, and was blessed of God (Gen. 26:12). The "valley of Gerar" (Gen. 26:17) was probably the modern Wady el-Jerdr.

(a lodging-place), a very ancient city south of Gaza. It occurs chiefly in Genesis, #Ge 10:19; 20:1; 26:17| also incidentally in #2Ch 14:13,14| It must have trenched on the "south" or "south country" of later Israel. From a comparison of #Ge 21:32| with Gene 26:23,26 Beersheba would seem to be just on the verge of this territory, and perhaps to be its limit towards the northeast.

GE'RAR (residence, or water-pots), a city and district in the south of Palestine, and near Gaza, Gen 10:19; visited by Abraham, Gen 20:1; by Isaac, Gen 26:1; Asa pursued the defeated Ethiopians to it. 2 Chr 14:13. Eusebius knew of Gerar as 25 miles from Eleutheropolis. The city may be Khurbet Umm Jerrar, several miles south of the valley of Ghuzzeh, which runs from Beersheba to the sea. Some locate the city at el-'Anjeh.

Chief city of the Philistines in Abraham's and Isaac's time; now Khirbet el Gerar. The fertile region between the two deserts of Kadesh and Shut; resorted to therefore by Abraham and Isaac in time of famine. On the southern border of Canaan, near Gaza and Beersheba (Genesis 10:19; Genesis 20:1; Genesis 26:1-26). Near the deep wady Jurf el Gerar, "the rapid of Gerar" (2 Chronicles 14:13-14.) The people were pastoral in the times of Abraham, but warlike, with a regular "chief captain of the army," Phichol (the "mouth of all," implying a commanding voice as commander-in-chief. Abimelech ("father of kings," implying an hereditary not an elective monarchy) was the common royal title (Psalm 34 title, compare the margin). Condor (Israel Exploration, August, 1875) identifies it rather with Tel-Jema, an enormous mound covered with broken pottery, immediately S. of Khirbet el Gerar. The name, lost to this the proper site, lingers in the neighboring Khirbet el Gerar.