Gerar

File:Elias van Nijmegen - Bijbelse voorstelling, Abimelech geeft Sara aan Abraham terug - 11096 - Museum Rotterdam.jpg

Abimelech, King of Gerar, returns Sarah to Abraham; painting by Elias van Nijmegen (1667-1755), Museum Rotterdam

Gerar (Template:Langx Gərār, "lodging-place") was a Philistine town and district in what is today south central Israel, mentioned in the Book of Genesis and in the Second Book of Chronicles of the Hebrew Bible.

Identification

According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, the biblical valley of Gerar (Template:Bibleverse) was probably located in the area of a valley known in Arabic as Wady Sheri'a,<ref>Gerar -- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia at biblehub.com</ref> and in Modern Hebrew as Nahal Gerar.<ref>'Gerar' in the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Zondervan Academic, 2011, p. 520</ref> Most commentators see the mound of Tel Haror (Hebrew) or Tell Abu Hureyra (Arabic) as representing the ancient Gerar.Template:Cn

Some older commentaries, such as Smith's Bible Dictionary,<ref>Smith's Bible Dictionary published 1884</ref> stated simply that Gerar was located "south of Gaza". Also, a ninth century rabbinical source, Saadia Gaon, identified Gerar with Haluza, which is located along the Besor Stream in the Negev.<ref>Rabbi Saadia Gaon's Tafsīr (Template:Langx = al-Khalūṣ) in the Pentateuch (Tafsir), s.v. Genesis 10:19, Genesis 20:2, Genesis 26:17, 20.</ref><ref>On Haluza's proximity to Gerar, see: M. Naor, Gerar — Tell el Far'a, Bulletin of the Israel Exploration Society (1955), pp. 99–102 (Hebrew)</ref> However, according to recent archaeological research, Haluza only dates to the period of the Nabataean Kingdom.

Biblical accounts

Biblically, the town features in two of the three wife-sister narratives in Genesis. These record that Abraham and Isaac each stayed at Gerar, near what became Beersheba, and that each passed his wife off as his sister, leading to complications involving Gerar's Philistine king, Abimelech. (Template:Bibleverse, and Template:Bibleverse)

The Haggadah identifies the two references to Abimelech as two separate people, the second being the first Abimelech's son, and that his original name was Benmelech ["son of the King"], but he changed his name to his father's, meaning "my father is king".

In 2 Chronicles 14:12-15, Gerar and its surrounding towns figure in the account of King Asa's defeat of Zerah's vast Cushite forces.

See also

• Tell Jemmeh

References

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