Ge'shur (Heb. Geshur', "isiaa; Sept. Ffcroi'p and reaovpi), the name of a district of Syria near Gilead (2 Sam. XV, 8 ; 1 Chron. ii, 23), which adjoined, on the east side of the Jordan, the northern border of the He- brew territory, and lay between Mount Hcrmon, Ma- achah, and Bashan (Deut. iii, 13, 14; Josh, xii, 5). It is plain from these notices that Geshur laj- in that portion of Syria which was connected with or adjoin- ing to the land of Gilead, and the Geshurites probably dwelt in the rocky fastnesses of Argob. This region is supposed to be the same with what is now called the Lejah, and is remarkable for its singularly wild and rugged scenery. Burckhardt says, "In the interior parts of the Lejah the rocks are in many jilaces cleft asunder, so tliat the whole hill appears shivered, and in the act of foiling down," etc. Porter adds, "No description can ajjproach the reality% One cannot re- press a shudder when lie finds himself in such a den, surrounded b}' armed hordes on whose faces the coun- try seems to have stamped its own savage aspect.
GESHUR
840
GESHURI
Ibrahim Paslia, flushed with victory, and maddened by the obstinacy of a liandful of Druses, attempted to follow them into tliis stronghold ; but scarcely a sol- dier who entered returned. Every nook concealed an j enemy. . . . The Lejah has for ages been a sanctuary for outlaws, and not unfrequently a refuge for the op- pressed'" {J/andbookfor Si/ria, p. 504). See Aegob.
Geshur is first associated with Aram or Syria as among the conquests of Jair, the son of Manasseh. After stating that he had three and twenty cities in the land of Gilead, it is said, Jair took " Geshur and Aram, with the towns of Jair, from them, with Ke- nath, and the towns thereof, three-score cities" (1 C'hron. ii, 23). "While these jtlaces were taken, they were held only as subject territories, still to a great extent occupied b}- their original inhabitants. See Havotii-Jair. According to the boundaries of the Hoh- Land, as defined \>y Moses, Geshur would have formed part of it; but in Josh, xiii, 2, 13, it is stated that the Israelites had expelled neither the Geshurites nor the Maachathites, but dwelt together with them. That the Hebrews did not after^vards permanently subdue Geshur appears from the circumstance that, in David's time, this district had a king of its own, called Talmai, whose daughter, Maachah, was one of tlio •wives of David (2 Sam. iii, 3; 1 Chron. iii, 2). She was probably a person of superior beaut}', as she be- came the mother of the two handsomest of David's children, Absalom and Tamar. How David should have thought of getting a wife from such a quarter, or what prior link of connection between him and the king of Geshur might have led to such a result, is left unnoticed in the history. But possibly the Geshurites, who are mentioned among the tribes against whom David made incursions while he dwelt in Ziklag (1 Sam. xxvii, 8), and who, from the name being once found in connection with the Philistines (Josh, xiii, 8), are gcnerallj' supposed to have been a different tribe from the other, may, after all, have been the same. See Gesiiukite. The Geshurites, very probably, from their fastnesses in Argob, were wont to sally forth, like the Amalekites, in occasional raids upon the districts to the south and cast of Palestine, without having anj' settled habitations there ; and David might justly regard them (though located at some distance), equall}' with the Amalekites who are mentioned along with them, as fair suVijccts for making reprisals upon. In that case he would be brought into close contact with Talmai, first, indeed, as occupying a hostile rela- tion to him, but not unnaturallj' afterwards as wish- ing to form with him a bond of alliance. Amid the troubles and difficulties which encompassed David's access to the throne, a marriage into the family of the king of Geshur might seem to afford a prospect not to be slighted of strengthening his position. As it ulti- mately proved, this alliance became tlie source of one of his greatest dangers, in giving birth to the fascinat- ing, l)ut restless and aspiring Absalom. The wild acts of Absalom's life may have been to some extent the results of maternal training ; they were at least char- acteristic of the stock from which he sprung. In flee- ing, as Absalom did, after the assassination of his brother Anmon, to the court of his maternal grandfa- ther at (ieshur (2 Sam. xiii, .37, 38; xiv, 23, 32), one can easily understand how secure a refuge he might find there, while he required to l)e in concealment, but at the same time how unlikeh' it was his ambition could remain long satisfied with its dreary aspect and dreadful seclusion. See ABSAT.ojr. The word Geshur signifies a hriflge, and corres])onds with the Arabic Jisr, Syriac Ghjthdrd ; and in the same region where, according to the above data, we must fix Geshur, be- tween Mount Hermon and the Lake of Tilierias, there still exists an ancient stone bridge over the Upper Jordan, called Jisr-Benat-Jakuh, or "the bridge of the daughters of Jacob," i. e. the Israelites. 'The ancient commercial route to and from Damascus and the East