Gerar

Gerar is a town in the south country where both Abraham and Isaac stayed as outsiders under a Philistine king. Isaac, driven by famine, settled in its valley and dug again the wells his father had dug, which the Philistines had stopped up. Herdsmen quarrelled over two wells, and he named them Esek and Sitnah. When the third went uncontested, he called it Rehoboth and said, “the LORD hath made room for us”. It is a patient story about water, quarrels and giving way. Genesis 26:17-22 tells it in a few lines.

8 verses

Genesis

Genesis 20:1

And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.

Genesis 26:1

And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

Genesis 26:17

And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

Genesis 26:18

And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

Genesis 26:19

And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

Genesis 26:20

And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.

Genesis 26:21

And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.

Genesis 26:22

And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

A region; lodging-place, a very ancient town and district in the south border of Palestine, which was ruled over by a king named Abimelech (Gen. 10:19; 20:1, 2). Abraham sojourned here, and perhaps Isaac was born in this place. Both of these patriarchs were guilty of the sin of here denying their wives, and both of them entered into a treaty with the king before they departed to Beersheba (21:23-34; 26). It seems to have been a rich pastoral country (2 Chr. 14:12-18). Isaac here reaped an hundred-fold, and was blessed of God (Gen. 26:12). The “valley of Gerar” (Gen. 26:17) was probably the modern Wady el-Jerdr.

Read the full entry

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(a lodging-place), a very ancient city south of Gaza. It occurs chiefly in Genesis, (Genesis 10:19; 20:1; 26:17) also incidentally in (2 Chronicles 14:13,14) It must have trenched on the "south" or "south country" of later Palestine. From a comparison of (Genesis 21:32) with Genesis26:23,26 Beersheba would seem to be just on the verge of this territory, and perhaps to be its limit towards the northeast.