Gerar

Gerar is a Philistine city, and a valley taking the same name, lying on the southern frontier of Canaan between Kadesh and Shur. Scripture introduces it as a boundary marker (Gen 10:19), then narrates two patriarchal sojourns there under a king named Abimelech, and finally records its appearance much later as the southern limit of Asa's pursuit of the Ethiopian army.

A Border City of the Canaanite

Gerar first appears in the Table of Nations as a southwestern reach of Canaanite territory. The boundary runs "from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, to Gaza" (Gen 10:19), placing the city in the corridor between the coastal Philistine plain and the wilderness of the South.

Abraham at Gerar

Abraham, after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, turns south: "And Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur. And he sojourned in Gerar" (Gen 20:1). The episode that follows in Genesis 20 belongs to the Abimelech narrative; Gerar is named here strictly as the place of sojourn.

Isaac at Gerar

A second famine drives Isaac on the same route: "And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar" (Gen 26:1). Settling there, "Isaac dwelt in Gerar" (Gen 26:6).

The Valley of Gerar

Conflict with the city's herdsmen drives Isaac out of the city itself and into the surrounding valley: "And Isaac departed there, and encamped in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there" (Gen 26:17). The valley is the second sense of the name in Scripture, and is defined by the wells Abraham had dug and the Philistines had stopped after his death (Gen 26:18). Isaac's slaves reopen the wells and find "a well of living water" (Gen 26:19), but "the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, The water is ours" (Gen 26:20). Isaac names the disputed wells Esek ("they contended with him") and Sitnah, then withdraws to a third well, Rehoboth, where the dispute ends: "For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land" (Gen 26:22). The valley episode is the only passage that gives the valley a geographic and economic shape — it is the line of wells that Abraham had earlier worked and that Isaac reclaims.

Asa's Pursuit to Gerar

Centuries later, Gerar reappears as the southern terminus of Asa's rout of the Ethiopian host: "And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar: and there fell of the Ethiopians so many that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before Yahweh, and before his host; and they carried away very much booty. And they struck all the cities round about Gerar; for the fear of Yahweh came upon them: and they despoiled all the cities; for there was much spoil in them" (2 Chr 14:13-14). The passage assumes a Gerar still standing as a populated district with cities round about, and presents the fear of Yahweh, not Judah's army alone, as what unmade them.