Gerar 905604 196738243 2008-03-08T10:50:24Z Ewawer 5125019 tidy up '''Gerar''' - meaning lodging-place - was a [[Philistine]] town and district in what is today south-central [[Israel]]. Archaeological evidence points to the town having come into existence with the arrival of the Philistines at around [[1200 BCE]] and having been little more than a village until [[800 BCE|800]]-[[700 BCE]]. Biblically, the town features in two of the three [[Wife-sister narratives in Genesis|wife-sister narratives]] in [[Genesis]]. The Bible records that [[Abraham]] and [[Isaac]] each stayed at Gerar, near what became [[Beersheba]], and that each passed their wife off as their sister, leading to romantic complications involving Gerar's Philistine king, [[Abimelech]]. ({{bibleverse||Genesis|20:1|HE}} , and {{bibleverse||Genesis|26:1|HE}}) The [[Haggada]] identifies the two references to Abimelech as to separate people, the second being the first Abimelech's son, and that his original name was Benmelech (son of the King) but changed his name to his father's, which clearly evidences that the name means "my father is the king". Most estimates place the biblical story to near [[2000 BCE]]. The biblical ''valley of Gerar'' ({{bibleverse||Genesis|26:17|HE}}) is probably the modern '''Wadi el-Jerdr'''. [[Category:Hebrew Bible places]] [[ca:Guerar]] [[de:Gerar]] [[fr:Guérar]] [[he:גרר]] [[pl:Gerar]] [[pt:Gerar]]