Geshurites Geshur
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [1]
GESHUR, Geshurites . A small Aramæan tribe, whose territory, together with that of Maacah (wh. see), formed the W. border of Bashan ( Deuteronomy 3:14 , Joshua 12:6; Joshua 13:11 ). The Geshurites were not expelled by the half-tribe of Manasseh, to whom their land had been allotted ( Joshua 13:13 ), and were still ruled by an independent king in the reign of David, who married the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur ( 2 Samuel 3:3 ). After the murder of his half-brother Amnon, Absalom took refuge with his maternal grandfather in ‘Geshur of Aram’ ( 2 Samuel 13:37; 2 Samuel 15:8 ). Geshur and Maacah were probably situated in the modern Jaulân , if they are not to be identified with it. In 1 Chronicles 2:23 Geshur and Aram are said to have taken the ‘tent-villages’ of Jair from the Israelites. On the strength of Joshua 13:2 and 1 Samuel 27:8 , it has been maintained that there was another tribe of this name in the neighbourhood of the Philistines; but the evidence in support of this view is very precarious.
