GATH
GATH (
Γέθ,
Γέττα: Eth.
Γεθαῖος), one of the five principal cities of the Philistines (
Josh. 11.22; 1
Sam. 5.8, vi 17), the birthplace and home of Goliath and his gigantic family. (1
Sam. 17.4; 2
Sam. 21.18--22.)
It was taken by Uzziah, and dismantled. (2
Chron. 26.6.) Josephus reckons it to the tribe of Dan (
Ant. 5.1.22), and says that Hezekiah took the cities of the Philistines from Gaza to Gath. (
Ant. 9.13.3.) St. Jerome speaks of it as a city of the Philistines on the confines of Judaea, between Eleutheropolis and Gaza, where a very extensive village existed in his day. (
Comment. in Mich. 1.10).
There can be little doubt that this same is intended in the
Onomasticon (s. v.
Γέθ), though it is there erroneously stated to be five miles from Eleutheropolis, on the road to Diospolis or Lydda. (Reland,
Palaest. s. v.) The inhabitants of
Beit-Jebrin (Eleutheropolis) speak of a village named
Kuryet-el-Gat, a quarter of an hour distant from
Beit-Jebrin, on the road to
Askelan. It may, perhaps, be permitted to hazard the conjecture that the present
Beit-Jebrin--the classical Betogarba and Eleutheropolis--marks the site of the ancient Gath. [
BETHOGABRIS] [
G.W]
GATH-HEPHER (
Γεθχοφές, Γαιθθά, LXX.;
Γεππεφά, Euseb.
Onom.), a town of Galilee in the tribe of Zabulon (
Josh. 19.13), the native place of the prophet Jonah (2
Kings, 14.25). St. Jerome places it two miles from Sepphoris, on the road to Tiberias, a small village in his day, where the tomb of the prophet was shown. (
Proem. in Jonam.) The tomb was shown to Benjamin of Tudela, in the mountains near Sepphoris, in the twelfth century (
Travels, vol. i. p. 80, ed.
Ashar); and in tile village of
El-Meshhad, situated two miles east of the ruins of Sepphoris, the Moslems show at this day the tomb of the prophet Jonah. (Robinson,
Bib. Res. vol. iii. p. 209, note 1.) [
G.W]
GATH-RIMMON (
Γεθρεμμών), a city of the tribe of Dan (
Josh. 19.45), assigned to the Levites (21.24; 1
Chron. 6.69), is described by Eusebius and St. Jerome as situated 12 miles from Diospolis, towards Eleutheropolis (
Onomast. s. v.); but this can scarcely be, as Dr. Robinson conjectures, identical with that which they place 5 miles from Eleutheropolis, on the way to Diospolis, as the distance between the two termini is much more than 17 miles. (Robinson,
Bib. Res. vol. ii. p. 421.) Neither can it be that large village then named Githha, which the
Onomasticon supposes to be the Gath to which the ark of the covenant was carried from Azotus, and which is placed (s. v.
Γεθθά between Antipatris and Jamnia. (Reland,
Palaest. p. 786.)
[
G.W]
