• Ezer
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • EZER

      (Eʹzer) [help].

      1. One of the Horite sheiks in the land of Seir. (Gen. 36:20, 21, 30) The Horites were later dispossessed and annihilated by the sons of Esau. (Deut. 2:22) The name Ezer in this case means “treasure,” due to a difference in the spelling in the original Hebrew. At 1 Chronicles 1:38 it has been misprinted “Ezar” in many modern editions of the Authorized Version, although it was correct in the edition of 1611 as well as other early editions.

      2. Likely a son of Ephraim who was killed along with his brother Elead by the men of Gath “because they came down to take their livestock.”—1 Chron. 7:20, 21; see EPHRAIM No. 1.

      3. The “father” of Hushah, which was perhaps a town of Judah, and a son of Hur of the tribe of Judah.—1 Chron. 4:1, 4.

      4. The chief one of the eleven valiant Gadites who separated themselves to David in the wilderness while he was still under restriction because of Saul. Being the head, Ezer was evidently the greatest and therefore ‘equal to a thousand.’—1 Chron. 12:1, 8, 9, 14.

      5. The son of Jeshua, a prince of Mizpah, who shared in repairing a section of the wall of Jerusalem under Nehemiah in 455 B.C.E.—Neh. 3:19.

      6. One of the priests in the procession arranged by Nehemiah at the inauguration of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem in 455 B.C.E.—Neh. 12:31, 41, 42.

  • Ezion-geber
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • EZION-GEBER

      (Eʹzi·on-geʹber).

      A place first mentioned as an Israelite campsite toward the close of the nation’s forty years in the wilderness. The next campsite was at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. (Num. 33:35, 36) From Kadesh the request was made to the king of Edom for authorization to pass through his land, but this was denied. (Num. 20:14-22) As Moses later recounted: “So we passed on away from our brothers, the sons of Esau, who are dwelling in Seir, from the way of the Arabah, from Elath and from Ezion-geber.” (Deut. 2:8) Both Elath (Eloth) and Ezion-geber are shown elsewhere to have been situated on the Red Sea, evidently at the head of the Gulf of Aqabah, the NE arm of the Red Sea.—1 Ki. 9:26; 2 Chron. 8:17.

      In harmony with Deuteronomy 2:8, the earlier account at Numbers 21:4 describes the Israelites as “trekking from Mount Hor [where Aaron died] by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom.” Some scholars suggest that the Israelites, after leaving Mount Hor, traveled to the southern end of the Dead Sea and went up the torrent valley of Zered (the boundary between Edom and Moab). Many commentators, however, hold that the foregoing texts require a more circuitous route in avoidance of Edom’s heartland, a route that led them back “by the way of the Red Sea,” and hence to the region of Ezion-geber. They suggest that the route followed took the Israelites S toward the Gulf of Aqabah, and that, upon reaching a point N of Ezion-geber, they likely turned to the NE through the Wadi Yatm, thereby skirting the southern extremity of Edom’s southern mountain range.

      DURING SOLOMON’S REIGN

      The next mention of Ezion-geber comes over four hundred years later, in the reign of Solomon (1037-997 B.C.E.). At this location on the gulf, Solomon had a fleet of ships constructed and launched, manned by a Phoenician-Judean crew. Phoenician King Hiram of Tyre, also very active in the shipping business, cooperated with Solomon in this enterprise. (1 Ki. 9:26-28; 10:11) About a century later King Jehoshaphat (936-911 B.C.E.) endeavored to revive this shipping industry based at Ezion-geber, but failed, as