Difference between revisions of "Girgashites"

<p> <strong> GIRGASHITES </strong> (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 ( [[Genesis]] 10:16; Genesis 15:21 , Deuteronomy 7:1 [and Deuteronomy 20:17 in Sam. and LXX [Note: Septuagint.] ], Joshua 3:10; Jos 24:11 , 1 Chronicles 1:14 , Nehemiah 9:8 ), affords no indication of their position, or to what branch of the [[Canaanites]] they belonged, except in two instances, namely, Genesis 10:16 , where the ‘Girgashite’ is given as the name of the fifth son of Canaan; and Joshua 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. </p>

== Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature <ref name="term_15758" /> ==

<p> 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. </p> <p> 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. </p>