GEBER (Tv; 'man' or 'mighty man,' Ta^ip A, om. B Luc. 1 K 4"). — One of Solomon's twelve commissariat officers, whose district lay to the E. of Jordan, and perhaps S. of tliat of the officer mentioned v.'^ At the end of v.'* comes a sen- tence referred by AV and KV to this Geber, and rendered 'and he was the only officer which was In the land.' This is usually thought to mean that in this large district more than one officer might have been expected, but that this was not the case, probably because the country was rugged and thinly populated. Such a rendering, however, together with the interpretation put upon it, can by no means be extracted from the Hebrew, which is certainly corrupt. Klostermann by a clever emendation obtains the statement ' and one officer was over all the officers who were in the land,' the reference being, not to Geber, but to Azariah son of Nathan, mentioned v.' as 'over theolUcers.' Cf. the interpretation of Jos. (Ant. VIll. ii. 3) ^irl ik TOVTwv (U tA\lv dpxt^f diroS^detKTo.
C. F. BCTRNEY.
GEBIM (c-33ri 'the trenches'). — A place N. of JeruMileiM, the inhabitants of which are graphically pictured by the prophet as saving their goods by
(light upon the approach of the Assyrian army, Is lu" only. In Eusebius (Onom/ist. s. 'Gebin') a Geba 5 Roman miles from Gophna, on the way to Neapolis (Shechem), is noticed. Thb is the modern Jebia, which, being near the f^f&i northern road, is a possible site for Gebim. See SiVP vol. ii. sh. xiv. C. R. CoNDER.
GECKO (ni;;K 'dn/ikdh, /ivyaX^, mygale).— The AV (Lv 11^) renders 'CrnQMh, ferret. This animal, however, is not found in the Holy Land, and is not at all likely to be the one intended here. The LXX ixvyaXi) signihes the shreiu mmise, of which several kinds are met with in the Holy Land : (1) Sorex nraneus, De Selys, Arab./dr el-kluxl&, in the hilly districts of N. Galilee ; (2) S. tetragonuru.i, Desra., in Lebanon ; (3) S. piji/TtuEus, De Selys, about one-third as large as the first ; (4) S. crassi- caudus, Licht., a silver-grey species, in the S. deserts; (5) S. fodiens, Schreb., the water shrew, by streams in Coelesyria and Antilebanon. Not withstanding the above tr" of the LXX and the notion of the Rabbins that the hedrjehorj was llie animal intended, the position of 'an&k&h among the lizards has inclined scholars to regard it as one of them. The RV has adopted (/ecAo (so Pesh.). This rendering, however, must be regarded as purely conjectural. There are several of the Gcckonida: in the Holy Land. The commonest of all is the com- mon gecko, Ptyodactylits Hasselquistii, Schneid., which is found everywhere amon" rocks and in ruins and about houses. It has a fan-shaped foot (whence its generic name), with suckers by the sides of the toes, so that it can walk on smooth walls, and even run inverted like a tly. It moves noiselessly. But it can emit a rapid clucking sound, by vibrating the tongue against the palate. The name gecko is an attempted imitation of this sound. There is a popular superstition in the country, that a gecko, crawling over the body, will produce leprous sores ; hence its name afju burets, 'father of leprosy.' This opinion, which is probably ancient, would add to the lacertine form of the animal a reason for considering it unclean. It has a flattish-triangular head, covered with scales, a wide mouth, large eyes and small teeth, and a broad tail, nearly as long as the body. The general colour is black, but the whole body is spotted with rows of rounded warts or promi- nences. It is the most repulsive-looking of the lizards in Palestine. G. E. Post.
GEDALIAH (i.r^ia, n;^n3 'J' is great').—!. Son of Aliikam, who had protected Jeremiah from the anti-Chaldtean party (Jer 26-^), and probably grand- son of Shaphan, the pious scribe (2 K 22). G. naturally sli.ared the views of Jeremiah. This commended him to Nebuchadnezzar, who made him governor over ' the poor of the people that wereleft in the land.' His two months' rule and treacherous murder are detailed in Jer 40, 41 (2 K 25-^''''°). At Mizpah in Benjamin the scattered elements of the national life gathered rounu G. First came Jeremiah, then the remnant of the army, and finally the .lews that had been dispersed in the adjacent countries. At G.'s bidding they began to settle in the deserted towns, and to gather in the now ownerless crops. Meanwhile Baalis, king of the Ammonites, resolved, by the assa.ssination of G., to destroy ' the remnant of Judah' (Jer40"). He found a tool in Ishmael 'of the seed royal,' formerly a high officer under Zedekinh, but now a bandit in the service of .\miuon (41'"). Disbelieving the warnings which he re- ceived, G. entertained Ishmael and ten followers at Mizpah. G. and the small garrison of Jews and CImldieans were slain, probably while at table (Jos. Ant. X. ix. Oi&nd their bodies cast promiscu-
118
GEDDUB
GEHAZI
oualy (41') into the ancient cistern of Asa. The
Slot of Baalig succeeded but too well ; for the ewish captains, fearing lest they might be held responaible for the audacious murder of the great king's representative (iV- "), fled into Egyjit, carrying with them Jeremiah and ' all the remnant of Judah.' ' It seemed to be the revocation of the advantages of tlie Exodus' (Stanley). The anni- versary of G.'s murder — the third day of the seventh month, Tisri (Zee 7° 8") — has been ever since observed as one of the four Jewish fasts. Gratz (see Cheyne on Jer 41') argues that G.'s government lasted five years, but liis reasons do not seem conclusive.