GEZER and GAZER on, and with tbe pause accent, ; Sept. l'aVp and Pa.cypd), an ancient royal city and stronghold of the Canaanites. When Joshua besieged Lachish, the king of Gezer came to aid that city, but was defeated (Josh. x. 33), and apparently slain, as his name is among those enumerated in Joshua xii. (ver. 12). The situa tion of Gezer is clearly indicated in several pas sages of the Bible. It lay ou the northern border of Benjamin, between Bethhoron-the-nether and the sea ; consequently in the Shephelah or mari time plain (Josh. xvi. 3). It was within the al lotted territory of Ephraim, and was assigned from that tribe to the Levites (xxi. 21). The Ephraem ites were not able to expel the Gezerites (xvi, to) and the city remained a frontier fortress of the Philistines for some centuries. It became, like Gath, the scene of many a fierce contest between them and the Israelities (2 Sam. v. 25 ; Chron. xx. 4). The Philistines were usually victorious on the plain, and the Israelites in the mountains. Gezer thus probably stood at the foot of the hills, We find David smiting the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gezer ' (2 Sam. v. 25) ; that is, till they got into the plain. At length, however, Pharaoh, king- of Egypt, captured and burned Gezer, and gave it for a present to his daughter, Solomon's wife ' Kings ix. 15-17). After Solo mon rebuilt it we hear no more of it in Scrip ture.
Gezer is sometimes written in the Septuagint rci apa (Josh. xxi. 21, Cod. Vat.); and consequently we find this form adopted by the Apocryphal writers and Josephus. The city is frequently re. ferred to in the wars of the Maccabees. In one place it is connectcd with Joppa (1 Maccab. xv, 2S, 35) ; in another it is said to border on Azotus (Ashdod ; xiv. 34). Josephus, who sometimes calls it l'ciaapa (Antig. xii. 7. 4), locates it on the south-western border of Ephraim (v. t. 22). Eusc bins and Jerome state that in their day it was a village (K4.77), four miles north of Nicopolis (Ono mast., s. v. Gazer); and Van Senden has sug gested its identity with the modern village of Kubab, which stands on the top of a rocky tell. There is no ground for this beyond conjecture. Van de Velde thinks the royal city of Gezer must have been much farther south (Memoir, 315). If so, there must have been two Gezers, one in south ern and the other in northern Philistia. It is possible, also, that the Gazara near Azotus may have been distinct from the Gezer of the Bible, for Azotus is twenty miles south-west of Nicopolis. No village or ruin has hitherto been discovered whose name would suggest identity with the ancient Gezer.—J. L. P.