Bible Encyclopedias
Gershom

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

gûr´shom ( גּרשׁם , gēreshōm , from gārash , "to cast out"; explained, however, in Exodus 2:22 and Exodus 18:3 as from gūr , "For he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land"):

(1) Firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah. The only details of his life contained in the Pentateuch are the account of his circumcision (Exodus 4:25 ), and his remaining under the care of Jethro, while Moses was in Egypt leading the Exodus. His descendants were numbered among the tribes of Levi (1 Chronicles 23:14 ). One of them apparently was the Jonathan who officiated as priest of the idolatrous sanctuary at Dan, and whose descendants held the office until the captivity. The Massoretic Text inserts a suspended nun , "נ , n," in the name of Moses (משה ), causing it to be read מנשה , Manasseh , for the purpose, according to tradition, of disguising the name out of respect for the revered Lawgiver. Another descendant described as a "son" was Shebuel, a ruler over the treasuries of David.

(2) A son of Levi, so called in 1 Chronicles 6:16 , 1 Chronicles 6:17 , 1 Chronicles 6:20 , 1 Chronicles 6:43 , 1 Chronicles 6:62 , 1 Chronicles 6:71 (Hebrew 1, 2, 5, 28, 47, 56); 1 Chronicles 15:7; elsewhere GERSHON (which see).

(3) A descendant of Phinehas, the head of a father's house, who journeyed with Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem in the reign of Artaxerxes (Ezra 8:2 ).