Hebrew word · H1647

גֵּרְשֹׁם

gereshom

Gershom

A personal name.

Appears 13 times in 13 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man of the tribe of Levi living at the time of Egypt and Wilderness, first mentioned at Exo.2.22;

son of: Moses (H4872) and Zipporah (H6855);

brother of: Eliezer (H0461H);

father of: Jonathan (H3083)(?) and Shebuel (H7619)

§ Gershom = "foreigner"

1) firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah

2) firstborn son of Levi

3) a son of the priestly family of Phinehas who returned from exile with Ezra

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Exodus 2:22

Range of meaning

A personal name. The text explains it as a sound-play on gēr ('resident alien') plus shām ('there'): 'a sojourner there.' The same name, or the close form Gershon, belongs to a Levite clan ancestor (Gen 46:11; 1 Chr 6:1, 16), and a Gershom son of Moses is the ancestor of priests in Judges 18:30 and 1 Chronicles 23:15–16.

Against the English

English versions transliterate the name and leave readers to catch the pun from the explanation. Few footnote the second echo, g-r-sh ('drive out').

Used elsewhere in the period

Hebrew narratives regularly explain a name with a sound-alike phrase rather than a strict derivation: Moses/mshh 'draw out' (Exod 2:10), Isaac/'laughter,' Manasseh and Ephraim (Gen 41:51–52). Scholars usually connect the name historically with the root g-r-sh, 'to drive out, expel.' That root appears three verses earlier, where the shepherds 'drove them away' (waygārəshûm, 2:17), and again later when Pharaoh 'drives out' Israel (Exod 6:1; 11:1; 12:39).

Similar words

Where it appears

Exodus · 2

  1. Exodus 2:22 גֵּרְשֹׁ֑ם Gershom

    And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

    Here: The name sounds like *gēr shām*, 'a resident alien there.' It also echoes the root *g-r-sh*, 'drive out,' the verb used for the shepherds driving off Reuel's daughters in 2:17.

  2. Exodus 18:3 גֵּֽרְשֹׁ֔ם [was] Gershom

    along with her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses had said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 18:30 גֵּרְשֹׁ֨ם Gershom

    The Danites set up idols for themselves, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

1 Chronicles · 9

  1. 1 Chronicles 6:16 גֵּרְשֹׁ֕ם Gershom

    The sons of Levi: Gershom, Kohath, and Merari.

  2. 1 Chronicles 6:17 גֵרְשׁ֖וֹם Gershom

    These are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni and Shimei.

  3. 1 Chronicles 6:20 לְֽגֵרְשׁ֑וֹם of Gershom

    Of Gershom: Libni his son, Jahath his son, Zimmah his son,

  4. 1 Chronicles 6:43 גֵּרְשֹׁ֖ם Gershom

    the son of Jahath, the son of Gershom, the son of Levi.

  5. 1 Chronicles 6:62 גֵרְשׁ֜וֹם Gershom

    The Gershomites, according to their clans, were allotted thirteen cities from the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh in Bashan.

  6. 1 Chronicles 6:71 גֵּרְשׁוֹם֒ Gershom

    The Gershomites received the following: From the clan of the half-tribe of Manasseh they were given Golan in Bashan and also Ashtaroth, together with their pasturelands.

  7. 1 Chronicles 23:15 גֵּרְשֹׁ֖ם Gershom

    The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer.

  8. 1 Chronicles 23:16 גֵרְשׁ֖וֹם Gershom

    The descendants of Gershom: Shebuel was the first.

  9. 1 Chronicles 26:24 גֵּרְשׁ֣וֹם Gershom

    Shebuel, a descendant of Gershom son of Moses, was the officer in charge of the treasuries.

Ezra · 1

  1. Ezra 8:2 גֵּֽרְשֹׁ֔ם ס Gershom

    from the descendants of Phinehas, Gershom; from the descendants of Ithamar, Daniel; from the descendants of David, Hattush

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.