גֵּרוּת

From the study of Jeremiah 41:17

Range of meaning

This exact word appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) connect it with the root גּוּר gwr, 'to sojourn', meaning to live somewhere as an outsider or temporary guest without rights of ownership. The related noun גֵּר gēr means 'resident foreigner'. So gērût most naturally means 'a place for staying as a guest': a lodging place, hostel, or stopping place for travellers. Some scholars suggest a roadside inn or caravan stop.

Against the English

KJV and YLT translate it as a common noun ('the habitation', 'the habitations'). BSB, WEB and most modern versions keep it as part of a place name ('Geruth Chimham'). Both approaches are defensible. The place-name approach hides the meaning 'lodging', and 'habitation' hides the sense that the stay was temporary.

How it drifted

'Habitation' in KJV English meant any dwelling place. Today it sounds formal and permanent, which loses the 'guest-lodging' sense of the root gwr.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint (Jer 48:17 in its numbering) has the place name Gabērōth Chamaam. The 'b' may come from a Hebrew text reading gidrôt, 'sheep-pens' or 'walled enclosures'. Josephus (Antiquities 10.9.5) says the group came to a place 'called Mandra', which is Greek for 'sheepfold' or 'enclosure'. That strongly suggests he knew a reading like gidrôt. The Latin Vulgate takes the word as a verb-like description ('staying as strangers', peregrinantes) instead of a name.