Gath occupied a strong position (2 Chron. xi, 8) on the border of Judah and Philistia (1 Sam. xxi, 10; 1 Chron. xviii, 1). It was near Shocoh and AduUam (2 Chron. xi, 8), and it appears to have stood on the way leading from the former to Ekron; for wlien the Philistines fled on tlie death of Goliath, thej- went "by the way of Shaaraim, even unto Gath and unto Ekron" (1 Sam. xvii, 1, 52). Yet, with all these indications,
GATH-HEPHER
GAUDEN
there has been great uncertainty as to the site (^Keland, Pala'st. p. 785 sq.). Josephus places it in the trilie of Dan (Ant. v, i, 22 ; in Aiit. viii, 10, 1, he calls it /pan, EiViij', b}' an error of the copyist, lleland, p. 747). The accounts of Eusebiiis andJerome are confused. In the Onoinast. (s. v. TiS-ja) thej' both saj', " Gath, from ■which the Analiim and Philistines were not extermi- nated, is a village seen by such as go from Eleuther- opolis to Diospolis, at about the fifth milestone." Yet in the same connection Eusebius mentions another Gath (or Vtc^a}, a large village between Antipatris and Jamnia, which he considered to be that to which the ark was carried (1 Sam. v, 8) ; hence the Crusaders identilicd Gath with Jamnia (Gesta Dei, p. 886). On the other hand, Jerome says (on Micah, i), "Gath is one of the five Plulistlne cities lying near the confines of Judah, on the road from Eleutheropolis to Gaza; now it is a very large village." On Jer. xxv, the same authority declares that Gath was not far from Azotus. Yet in his preface to Jonah he says that Geth, in Opher, the native place of the prophet, is to be distinguished. Bonfrere suggests (In the Onomast. s. V.) tiiat there were several places of the same name, and this may account for the discrepancies. Dr. Rob- inson sought in vail! for some traces of its site (i?e- se'jrc'ies, ii, 421) ; yet Schwarz (Palest, p. 121) says it still remains in "a village bj"- the name of Oatha, three English miles south of Jaffa, on the shore of the Medi- terranean"— a statement condrnied by no otiier travel- ler. See also GiTT AIM. Thom&on (Land and /Jook, ii, 300) contends for Beit-Jibriii or Eleutheropolis as the true site ; but IMr. Porter, who made a special visit to Philistia in 1857 for the purpose of discovering the spot, argues for its identification with tlie conspicuous hill now called TeU es-.SaJJeh. This hill stands upon the side of the plain of Philistia, at the foot of the mountains of Judah, ten miles east of Ashdod, and about the same distance south by east of Eki'on. It is irregular in form, and about 200 feet high. On the top are the foundations of an old castle ; and great numbers of hewn stones are built up in the walls of the terraces that run along the declivities. On the north-east is a projecting shoulder, whose sides appear to have been scarped. Here, too, are traces of ancient buildings ; and here stands the modern village, ex- tending along the whole northern face of the liill. In the walls of the houses are many old stones, and at its western extremity two columns still remain on their pedestals. Pound the sides of the hill, especially on the south, are large cisterns excavated in the rock (Hand-book for Syria and Pal. p. 252). — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. V. See Mizpeh.
The inhabitants are called Gittites C^SHS, Sept. rtryaiof). See also Gatii-Hepher ; Gatii-Rim- MON ; JIoresheth-Gath.
Gath-he'pher (Heb. with the art. Gath ha-Cke- pher, ~£nn rs, wine-/)re«s of the well; Sept. FcS'xoOrp. Vulg. Geth qme est in Opher'), a town in Galilee, the birthplace of the prophet Jonah (2 Kings xiv, 25). It is stated l)y Eusebius and Jerome to have been in the tribe of Zebulun (Onomast. s. v. rt33'f6a, Gethefer). The latter (Prcpf. ad Jon.) speaks of it as a small place two miles from Sepphoris, on the way to Tiberias, and says that the sepulchre of Jonah was shown in his day. Benjamin of Tudela, in the 12th century, says that the tomb of Jonah was still shown on a hill near Seppho- ris (Earl;/ Travtrls in Pnl. p. 80). It was doubtless the same as Gittaii-hepiiek, situated in the east of Zeb- ulun (Josh, xix, l.S). The position corresponds well to that oi el-Meshnd, a village on the top of a rocky hill, in which is still shown a Muslim tomb of the prophet Jonah (Robinson, 7?esc«rcAes, iii, 209, note; De Saulcy, Nairatire, ii, 318; Thomson, Z/'<nfZ and Booh, ii, 122; Schwarz, Palest, p. 89 ; Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 312). See GuFTA.
III.— B B B
Gath-rim'nion (Heb. Gath-Rimmon' , 'j'ia'nTS, press of the pomeejrunate ; Sept. rf.^()f/i(/iw)', Vulgate Gethremmon), a town in the tribe of Dan (Josh, xix, 45), and a Levitical city (Josh, xxi, 24; 1 Chron. vi, G9). In the time of Eusebius and Jerome it was a ver\' large village, " twelve miles from Diospolis as j'ou go hence to Eleutheropolis" (Onomast. s. v. Vt^- pff^i/ioji', Gethremmon) ; but the same writers also men- tion a Gath five Roman miles north of Eleutheropolis towards Diospolis (ib. s. v. Fe^, Geth). Dr. Roljinson thinks them to be one place, and that the site is found in Deir Dubbdn, where are some remarkable excava- tions (Researches, ii, 421). In that case, however, it could not have lain within tlie territorv of Dan, which passed at a point between the two positions. The first- mentioned distance would correspond to that of the modern site Rafat, containing wide-spread ruins (Rob- inson, Researches, iii, 20).