Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

SOJOURN IN THE NEGEB 20:1-21:34
ian country of the Biblical records meant a rather wild
region of scant vegetation, except at certain seasons when
rainfall provided temporary pasturage for the nomads’
flocks (cf. Psa. 106~9, A,R,V,, marginal rendering, pasture-
Zartd) . These wildernesses, unlike densely wooded wildernesses
of our Americas, were treeless, except for palm-trees
in the oases, bushes like acacia, and inferior trees like the
tamarisk (Exo. 15:27, Elim; Gen. 21:33). Because of its
aridity a wilderness in Scripture is sometimes called a
desert.)
(3) Gerar, aiid the Philistines.
Whatever the extent
to which Abraham pastured his flocks between Kadesh and
Shur, his more or less permanent tenting-ground must
have been in the vicinity of Gerar, a city forty miles
sautheast of Gaza in the foothills of the Judean mountains
(Gen. 1O:19), hence interior to the coastal plain, and
some distance from the route over which (by way of
Gaza) invading armies invariably have moved to and fro
between Egypt and Southwest Asia not only in ancient
times, but even in our own century. (It should be noted
that Armageddon lies on this military route, Rev. 16:16.
See under “Megiddo” in any Bible Dictionary). Both
Abraham and Isaac sojourned at Gerar (Gen., chs. 20, 21,
26), digging wells for their flocks. The city, we are told,
was situated in the “land of the Philistines’’ (Gen. 21:32,
34; 26:1, 8). This designation is said to be an anachronism:
“it could be ascribed to a late editor, for the Philistines
probably entered the land long after the time of Abraham”
(HSB, 3 1). Archaeological evidence,, however, proves that
this is not necessarily so. Cf. Schultz (OTS, 35) : “The
presence of the Philistines in Canaan during patriarchal
times has been considered an anachronism. The Caphtorian
settlement in Canaan around 1200 B.C. represented
a late migration of the Sea People who had made previous
settlements over a long period of time. The Philistines
had thus established themselves in smaller numbers long
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