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Gebini B. Ḥarson

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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A Jewish Crœsus, cited as a realistic illustration of Ecclesiastes 4:8. The Midrash thus dissects the verse: "There is one alone": that means Gebini b. Ḥarson, to whom"there was no second," he being without an equal. "He hath neither child nor brother": he was his mother's only son; and "there is no end to his labor," that is, the laboriously accumulated wealth which his father bequeathed to him. "Neither is his eye satisfied with riches," because he was blind in one eye. "For whom do I labor, and bereave my soul of good?" It is related that, after his father's death, he requested his mother, "Show me all the silver, and the gold which my father has left me." She showed him a heap of denars the bulk of which was such as to prevent their seeing each other when they stood on opposite sides thereof. "And," adds R. Levi in the name of Resh Laḳish, "the very day when Gebini b. Ḥarson died, Belshazzar, afterward governor of Babylonia, was born, and he subsequently carried off all that wealth" (Eccl. R. ad loc.; see "Mattenot Kehunnah" ad loc.).