The Valley of Gerar

נַחַל גְּרָר

Where is the Valley of Gerar? Nahal Gerar, from near Beersheba to the Besor. I mark it probable.

Isaac camped in this valley and reopened his father's wells, and the herders of Gerar fought him over every new one.

By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker

Site today
Nahal Gerar, from near Beersheba to the Besor
How sure
Probable The best case we have, with real alternatives.
Other names
Gerar Stream, Nahal Gerar, Wadi of Gerar, Wadi esh-Sharia
Location
31.3894° N, 34.6372° E (Google Maps)
The Valley of Gerar on the hand-drawn Map of Biblical Israel
Gerar on our hand-drawn Map of Biblical Israel. Get the full map as a print →

How we know where it was

The Torah itself speaks of the nahal of Gerar, the valley of the city of Gerar. Most scholars place that city at Tel Haror, a large Middle Bronze Age city on the bank of this wadi.

The ground fits the story. The wadi lies between Gaza and Beersheba, in Abimelech's borderland, and from here Isaac moved on to Beersheba. Its bed holds water below the surface, the kind people fight over. Isaac named the disputed wells Esek, quarrel, and Sitnah, enmity.

Older views put Gerar at Tell Jemmeh on the Besor, or at Haluza. Tel Haror is now generally preferred, and Haluza was founded many centuries too late.

Visiting today

Tel Haror and Tel Sera' are unrestored tels in the farmland of the western Negev. Route 25 crosses the wadi.

Read it in the Bible

Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.

See Gerar on the interactive map →

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Nearby places

Sources and further reading