GEZER. - Locality 10 km southeast of Ludd (Lydda), 28 km southeast of Jaffa, today Tell Gezer.

In the list of Palestinian cities conquered by Thutmosis III (1501-1447 B.C.) it is gdr; alu gazzi in the letters of el-'Amârahah; but the city already existed at the end of the 19th millennium B.C. Thutmosis IV (1420-1411 B.C.) announces that he had reconquered G. and had transported prisoners to Thebes. Joshua (Jos. 10, 33) defeated King Horam from G., an ally of the king of the city of Lachish. Subsequently G. is found under the Canaanites (Jos. 16, 10; Iude. 1, 29). At the time of David it is allied with the Philistines (II Sam. 5, 25; I Par. 14, 16; 20, 4). Pharaoh conquers and destroys G. and gives it as a dowry to his daughter, the wife of King Solomon (I Reg. 9, 16 ff.; according to W. F. Albright this refers to Gerar and not to G.). Under Theglathpalasar III (745-727 B.C.) G. was conquered by the Assyrians. There is no information until the Maccabean period.

In 166 B.C. G. is within the border of the province of Judea (I Mach. 4, 15; 7, 45). In 160 B.C. it is fortified by Bacchides (I Mach. 9, 52); in 142 it is conquered by Simon Maccabeus, who drives out the pagans in order to settle Jews there (I Mach. 13, 43-48). To that period belong some Hebrew-Greek inscriptions of minor importance. The Crusaders remember G. as Mons Gisant.

Excavations there were carried out by Macalister (1902-1909) and, from 1934, by A. Rove. The "tablet" of G. (ca. the 9th cent. B.C.) enumerates the months of the year two by two, indicating the agricultural works characteristic of each group.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: B. Meisler, G., in Enc. Ind., VII, coll. 352-55; A. Jirku, Die ägypt. Listen palästinischer und syrischer Ortsnamen, Leipzig 1937, p. 15 f.; K. Galling, Bibliches Reallexikon, Tübingen 1937, coll. 80-83; M. Noth, Die Welt des Alten Test., Berlin 1940, passim. - Excavations: A. Rove, in Palestine exploration fund, quart. statement, 67 (1935), p. 19 ff.; R. A. S. Macalister, The excavation of G., London 1942. - Tablet: D. Diringer, Le iscrizioni antico-ebraiche palestinesi, Florence 1934, pp. 4 and 10; E. Zolli, La tavoletta di G., in Biblia, 27 (1946), pp. 129-31.

Eugenio Zolli

@incollection{ec6_gezer, author = {Zolli, Eugenio}, title = {Gezer}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {291--292}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/gezer} }

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