the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Gerar
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or GERAR . A place mentioned in Genesis 10:19 in the boundary of the Canaanite territory near Gaza, wheres Abraham sojourned and came in contact with a certain ‘Abimelech king of Gerar’ ( Genesis 20:1 ). A similar experience is recorded of Isaac ( Genesis 26:1 ), but the stories are evidently not independent. Gerar reappears only in 2 Chronicles 14:13-14 , in the description of the rout of the Ethiopians by Asa, in which Gerar was the limit of the pursuit. Eusebius makes Gerar 25 Roman miles S. of Eleutheropolis; hence it has been sought at Umm el-Jerâr , 6 miles S. of Gaza. This, however, seems a comparatively modern site and name. Possibly there were two Gerars: the Abrahamic Gerar has also been identified with Wady Jerâr , 13 miles W. S. W. from Kadesh. The problem, like that of the mention of Philistines in connexion with this place in the time of Abraham, has not yet been solved.
R. A. S. Macalister.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Gerar'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/g/gerar.html. 1909.
