Gerar
Γέραρα
Gerar (Γέραρα), a town and country of the Philistines, situated between Cadesh and Shur, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned for many years. (Gen. 20.1, &c., 26.1, &c.) According to S. Jerome it was situated 25 miles south of Eleutheropolis (Betogabra). (Onomast. s. v.; Reland, Palaest. p. 804.) Its site was recovered by Mr. Rowlands in 1843, and is thus described: From Gaza our course was to Khalasa; on our way we discovered ancient Gerar. We had heard of it at Gaza under the name of Joorf-el-Gerám (the
(Williams, Holy City, vol. i. appendix; p. 464.)Rush
or Rapid of Gerâr
), which we fund to lie three hours SSE. of Gaza, within Wady-Gaza, a deep and broad channel, coming down from the SE., and receiving, a little higher up than this spot, Wady-es-Sheriah, from the ENE. Near Joorf-el-Gerâr are traces of an ancient city, called Khirlet-el-Gerar ( The ruins of Gerar
). Our road beyond to Khalasa lay along a plain slightly undulated. This plain must be the land of Gerar.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.