Girgashites

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.

See CANAANITES.\par

(See CANAAN) Jos 24:11. W. of Jordan. Sprung from the fifth sea of Canaan (Gen 10:16).

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By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn

One of the nations which possessed the land of Canaan before the Israelitish conquest. In Hebrew the name occurs only in the singular and with the definite article. In Gen. x. 16 and I Chron. i. 14 "the Girgashite" is mentioned as the fifth son of Canaan, while in other passages (Gen. xv. 21; Deut. vii. 1; et al.) the name designates the whole tribe. The territory of the Girgashites has never been exactly located; the only certainty is that it lay west of the Jordan (Josh. xxiv. 11). Josephus says ("Ant." i. 6, § 2) that in his time nothing was known of the Girgashites save the name.

GIRGASHITES (in Heb. always sing. ‘the Girgashite,’ and rightly so rendered in RV [Note: Revised Version.] ).—Very little is known of this people, whose name, though occurring several times in OT in the list of Can. tribes (Gen 10:16; Gen 15:21, Deu 7:1 [and Deu 20:17 in Sam. and LXX [Note: Septuagint.] ], Jos 3:10; Jos 24:11, 1Ch 1:14, Neh 9:8), affords no indication of their position, or to what branch of the Canaanites they belonged, except in two instances, namely, Gen 10:16, where the ‘Girgashite’ is given as the name of the fifth son of Canaan; and Jos 24:11, where the Girgashites would seem to have inhabited the tract on the west of Jordan, the Israelites having been obliged to cross over that river in order to fight the men of Jericho, among whom were the Girgashites.