Gir´gashites, one of the families of Canaan, who are supposed to have been settled in that part of the country which lay to the east of the Lake of Gennesareth.
The Girgashites are conjectured to have been a part of the large family of the Hivites as they are omitted in nine out of ten places in which the nations or families of Canaan are mentioned, while in the tenth they are mentioned, and the Hivites omitted. Josephus states that nothing but the name of the Girgashites remained in his time. In the Jewish commentaries of R. Nachman, and elsewhere, the Girgashites are described as having retired into Africa, fearing the power of God and Procopius, in his History of the Vandals mentions an ancient inscription in Mauritania Tingitana, stating that the inhabitants had fled thither from the face of Joshua the son of Nun. The fact of such a migration is not unlikely: but we have very serious doubts respecting the inscription.