Gershom

Guhr´shuhm

1 Moses’s eldest son, born to Zipporah in Midian (Exod 2:22). The name, popularly explained as “sojourner there” (Heb. ger sham), may be based on the verb garash (“drive away”), used for Pharaoh’s release of Israel from Egypt (Exod 6:1; Exod 11:1) and for the expulsion of earlier inhabitants from Canaan (Exod 23:28-31). It also recalls Moses’s rescue of Zipporah and her sisters from the shepherds who “drove them away” from the well (Exod 2:17). This Gershom is the ancestor of the priest at Dan (Judg 18:30). 2 A descendant of Phinehas (Ezra 8:2). 3 For the Gershom of (1Chr 6 cf. 1Chr 15:7), see Gershon.