Gerar

(district) — an ancient Canaanite royal city. The hereditary title of the king of Gerar was Abimelech. Mention in Holy Scripture of this city as contemporary with Sodom and Gomorrah and as located in the south occurs in Holy Scripture from very ancient times (Gen. 10:19; 20:1, 2; 26:1–6). The city of Gerar, together with its region, was known to Abraham and Isaac, who lived for a time in Gerar, having their wells there. Both the city and the region of Gerar, according to the writer of Genesis, were the place of Abraham’s residence, but probably he lived not in the city itself, but in the region.

It is possible that Beersheba was among the possessions of Abimelech, and we see that Isaac, who was born in that region, lived in the valley of Gerar (26:17). It is not easy to determine the boundaries of this territory, but it must have been considerably larger. As for the valley of Gerar, abundant in water, it apparently is identical with the present-day locality called Wadi esh-Sharia. The last biblical reference to Gerar is found in 2 Chronicles (14:13, 14), in the days of Asa. The location of this city apparently corresponds to the location of the city of Khirbet el-Gerar, situated at some distance to the south of Gaza. It is quite possible that the wells discovered by the Englishman Robinson were dug by Abraham and reopened by Isaac (Gen. 26:18–22).