GERAR, or Gerara, a City of the Philistins, southward of the territories of Judah. There were Kings of this City, whose names were Abimelech in the time of Abraham and Isaac; and these two Patriarchs being under a necessity to dwell for some time at Gerar, were obliged for the preservation of their Lives, to say, that their wives were only their sisters. See Gen. chap. xxi. and xxvi. and the Articles,
ABIMELECH, ABRAHAM, and ISAAC.
Gerar extended itself far into Arabia Petræa, being five and twenty miles from Euseb. in locis, Hieron. ibid. Gen. xx. 1.Eleutheropolis beyond Daroma, that is to say, the southern part of the land of Judah. Moses says, it lay between Kadesh and Shur. St. Jerom, in his Hebrew Traditions upon Genesis, says, that from Gerar to Jerusalem was three days journey. There was a wood near Gerar, which is spoken of Theodoret in 2. Paralip. qu. 1. Sozomen, hist. l. 6. c. 32. & l. 9. c. 17. a Gen. xxvi. 26. b Sozom. l. 8. c. 9. c 2 Macc. xiii. 24. Matth. viii. 28.by Theodoret; and a brook, upon which was seated a monastery taken notice of by Sozomen. Moses a also mentions the brook or valley of Gerar. Sozomen b speaks of a little town called Gerra, fifty furlongs from Pelusium; and in the book of Maccabees we read, that Judas was appointed Governour of all the Coast from Ptolemais, as far as the Gerrhenians. Gerar c is confounded with Beersheba1, Askelon2, Allush3, and Arad4.
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