GIRGASHITES ():

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One of the nations which possessed the land of Canaan before the Israelitish conquest. In Hebrew the name occurs only in the singular and with the definite article. In Gen. x. 16 and I Chron. i. 14 "the Girgashite" is mentioned as the fifth son of Canaan, while in other passages (Gen. xv. 21; Deut. vii. 1; et al.) the name designates the whole tribe. The territory of the Girgashites has never been exactly located; the only certainty is that it lay west of the Jordan (Josh. xxiv. 11). Josephus says ("Ant." i. 6, § 2) that in his time nothing was known of the Girgashites save the name.

E. G. H. M. Sel.
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