GATH-HEPHER (gath-he'pher), (Heb. with the article 77.10-M, gath-hah-khay' fer, wine press of the well).
There was a Gath-hepher belonging to the chil dren of Zebulun ( Josh. xix :to, sq.), the birth place of the prophet Jonah (2 Kings xiv:25), ly ing not far from Sepphoris on the road to Ti berias. This location corresponds with the vil lage of el-Meshhed or Meshhad, three miles north 47). It is a very ancient place, as we find it men tioned in Gen. x :19, where it is given as one of the border-cities of the Canaanites. In Deut. 23, it is found as the place unto which the Avims dwelt. Joshua smote the Canaanites as far as Gaza (Josh. x:41), but spared the Anakims (giants) that dwelt there (Josh. xi:21, 22). In the division of the land, Gaza fell to the lot of Judah (Josh. xv :47), and was taken by him with the coast thereof (Judg. i :18), but its inhabitants were not extepminated (Judg. iii :3) Gaza was one of the five Philistine cities which gave each a golden emerod as a trespass-offering to the Lord (I Sam. vi :17). Solomon's kingdom extended
as far as Gaza (1 Kings iv :24). But the place appears always as a Philistine city in scripture (Judg. iii :3 ; xvi :1; r Sam. vi :17; 2 Kings xviii: 8). Hezekiah smote the Philistines as far as Gaza (2 Kings xviii:8). Gaza fell into the hands of east of Nazareth. Here one of Jonah's tombs exists, its chief rival being at the site of ancient Nineveh. (Thomson, Land and Book, ii. t22.) GATH-RIXMON (gath'rTmsmon),(Heb.linrr1;., gath-rim-ntone', wine press of Rimmon).
1. This place lay in the territory of Dan, and was given to the Levites (Josh. xxi :24; Chrott. vi :69). It was apparently not far from Joppa ( Josh. xix :45).
2. A town of the half tribe of Manasseh, west of the Jordan (Josh. xxi:25). Raumer (Palas tina) supposes it to be another Levite city; but Winer (Handwifrterbuch), with more likelihood, ascribes its origin to a mistake of the transcriber, who took the word from the preceding verse.
J. R. B.