GEZER

(Geʹzer) [portion].

A royal city on the inland side of the Palestinian coastal plain. Gezer is first mentioned when its king unsuccessfully tried to save Lachish from the Israelite army under Joshua. (Josh. 10:33; 12:7, 8, 12) Gezer was assigned as a boundary site to the Ephraimites (Josh. 16:3; 1 Chron. 7:28) but they did not entirely dispossess the Canaanite inhabitants. (Josh. 16:10; Judg. 1:29) Gezer was also appointed to the Kohathites as a Levitical city.—Josh. 21:20, 21; 1 Chron. 6:66, 67.

The city was associated with the Philistines in David’s time, as when he broke their power “from Geba to as far as Gezer.” (2 Sam. 5:25; 1 Chron. 14:16) Also, Sibbecai the Hushathite distinguished himself during the defeat of the Philistines at Gezer by striking down Sippai, a descendant of the Rephaim. (1 Chron. 20:4) Egypt’s Pharaoh later came against Gezer for some unstated reason. After burning the city and killing its Canaanite population, he gave it as a dowry to Solomon’s wife. Solomon rebuilt and possibly fortified the city.—1 Ki. 9:15-17.

Gezer also finds frequent mention in secular records. On the walls of the temple at Karnak, Thutmose III recorded the capture of Gezer. The city later played a prominent role in the Tell el-Amarna letters, being mentioned by name at least nine times. Pharaoh Mer-ne-Ptah boasted on his stele that he ‘seized Gezer.’

Geographers consider ancient Gezer to be modern Tell el-Jazar, located about midway on the route between Jerusalem and Jaffa (Joppa). It thus lay near another great highway that has for millennia connected Egypt with Mesopotamia for trade and military purposes. Tell el-Jazar’s elevated position on a ridge of the Shephelah allowed it to command use of both these roads.

Archaeological digging first began at this tell early in the twentieth century. Since then it has become one of the most thoroughly excavated and explored sites in Palestine. Among the finds there are the “Solomonic gate and casemate wall” (stratum six), built upon a layer of destruction debris that some conjecture to be the result of Pharaoh’s burning of Gezer. Its architecture is considered so similar to that found in structures at Hazor and Megiddo as to indicate that all three were built from the same plans. Earlier strata show Philistine pottery in abundance.Perhaps the most famous find to come out of Tell el-Jazar, however, is the Gezer “calendar,” a plaque containing what appear to be a schoolboy’s memory exercises. It has proved to be of value by informing modern researchers of ancient Israel’s agricultural seasons and in providing a glimpse into the Hebrew script and language of Solomon’s day.