GERGESEI (Hebr. Girgāii; Septuagint, Γερμαχίαι, Latinized as Gergesei). - Clan or tribe, which shared with other ethnic groups the dominion of pre-Israelite Palestine. In the table of nations (Gen. 10, 16) the G. are presented as descendants of Ham; but this does not prejudice the ethnological classification of this people, since that document follows particular principles, which do not always coincide with the somatic-linguistic characteristics of modern ethnology.
Perhaps they were Semites like the Canaanites; but an ethnic affinity with the Hittites cannot be excluded. In the Bible the G. are mentioned very few times (Gen. 10, 19; 15, 21; Deut. 7, 1; Ios. 3, 10; 24, 11; Neh. 9, 8), and always in a stereotyped phraseology listing the various clans or tribes of pre-Israelite Palestine. Thus far there is no extrabiblical confirmation of the existence of such a people; nevertheless, Phoenician or similar proper names have been found, or at least names etymologically deriving from the same root (cf. M. Lidzbarski, Handbuch der nordwestlichen Epigraphik, I, Weimar 1898, p. 252).