גֵּרְשׁוֹן
Gershon
BDB lists 2 entries for ‘Gershon’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H1648 appears — 17 distinct verses across 5 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Genesis 1 verse
Exodus 2 verses
- Exodus 6:16 גֵּרְשׁ֕וֹן n Proper These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari; and the years of the life of Levi were one hundred thirty-seven years.
- Exodus 6:17 גֵרְשׁ֛וֹן n Proper The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, according to their families.
Numbers 10 verses
- Numbers 3:17 גֵּרְשׁ֕וֹן n Proper These were the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari.
- Numbers 3:18 גֵרְשׁ֖וֹן n Proper These are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei.
- Numbers 3:21 לְ/גֵ֣רְשׁ֔וֹן prep + n Proper Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites, and the family of the Shimeites: these are the families of the Gershonites.
- Numbers 3:25 גֵרְשׁוֹן֙ n Proper The charge of the sons of Gershon in the Tent of Meeting shall be the tabernacle, and the tent, its covering, and the screen for the door of the Tent of Meeting,
- Numbers 4:22 גֵרְשׁ֖וֹן n Proper "Take a census of the sons of Gershon also, by their fathers' houses, by their families;
- Numbers 4:38 גֵרְשׁ֑וֹן n Proper Those who were numbered of the sons of Gershon, their families, and by their fathers' houses,
- Numbers 4:41 גֵרְשׁ֔וֹן n Proper These are those who were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon, all who served in the Tent of Meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of Yahweh.
- Numbers 7:7 גֵרְשׁ֑וֹן n Proper He gave two wagons and four oxen to the sons of Gershon, according to their service:
- Numbers 10:17 גֵרְשׁוֹן֙ n Proper The tent was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who bore the tent, set forward.
- Numbers 26:57 לְ/גֵרְשׁ֗וֹן prep + n Proper These are those who were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari, the family of the Merarites.
Joshua 2 verses
- Joshua 21:6 גֵרְשׁ֗וֹן n Proper The children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.
- Joshua 21:27 גֵרְשׁוֹן֮ n Proper To the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the half-tribe of Manasseh [they gave] Golan in Bashan with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Be-eshterah with its suburbs; two cities.
1 Chronicles 2 verses
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
גרשון (Gêrᵉshôwn) is a Hebrew name most often rendered “Gershon.” It clusters heavily in Numbers, which alone accounts for 59% of its uses. It turns up in 17 verses across 5 books, an uncommon footprint. It first appears in Genesis 46:11. For the data behind this summary, explore 17-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1648 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 17
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 17 distinct verses.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,671
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,671 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 17 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 17 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 13 verses · 76%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 2 verses · 12%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 12%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Gershon 16×
- American Standard Version: Gershon 17×
- Berean Standard Bible: Gershon 9×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Gershon 16×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1648 across 17 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H1648 across 17 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1648 across 12 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 6 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1648 across 17 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 2 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- Gershon or Gershom = "exile"
- firstborn son of Levi born before Jacob's family went to Egypt
Word origin
n.pr.m. son of Levi (= גרשׁם 1 Ch 6:1, 28; 15:7 גרשׁום 1 Ch 6:2, 5, 47, 56) Gn 46:11; Ex 6:16, 17 Nu 3:17, 18, 21, 25; 4:22, 38, 41; 7:7; 10:17; 26:57; Jos 21:6, 27; 1 Ch 5:27; 23:6 (particularly in expression sons of Gershon, i.e. family, descendants of Gershon Nu 3:25; 4:22, 38, 41; 7:7; 10:17 Jos 21:6, 27; cf. sons of Gershom 1 Ch 6:47, 56; 15:7).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from גרש (gârash) (H1644) — to drive out.
Forms in the corpus
The 11 distinct written forms H1648 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| גֵּרְשׁ֕וֹן | Noun, Proper | Exodus 6:16 | 4 |
| גֵרְשׁ֑וֹן | Noun, Proper | Numbers 4:38 | 2 |
| גֵרְשׁ֖וֹן | Noun, Proper | Numbers 3:18 | 2 |
| גֵרְשׁוֹן֙ | Noun, Proper | Numbers 3:25 | 2 |
| גֵרְשׁ֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | Numbers 4:41 | 1 |
| גֵרְשׁ֗וֹן | Noun, Proper | Joshua 21:6 | 1 |
| גֵרְשׁ֛וֹן | Noun, Proper | Exodus 6:17 | 1 |
| גֵרְשׁוֹן֮ | Noun, Proper | Joshua 21:27 | 1 |
| גֵּרְשׁ֑וֹם | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 15:7 | 1 |
| לְ/גֵ֣רְשׁ֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | Numbers 3:21 | 1 |
| לְ/גֵרְשׁ֗וֹן | Noun, Proper | Numbers 26:57 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1648, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 7 — not the complete family. 2 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Gershon). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
=Ger'shom expulsion, the eldest of Levi's three sons (Gen. 46:11; Ex. 6:16).
In the wilderness the sons of Gershon had charge of the fabrics of the tabernacle when it was moved from place to place, the curtains, veils, tent-hangings (Num. 3: 21-26). Thirteen Levitical cities fell to the lot of the Gershonites (Josh. 21:27-33).
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(exile). The eldest of the three sons of Levi, born before the descent of Jacob's family into Egypt. (Genesis 46:11; Exodus 6:16) (B.C. before 1706.) But, though the eldest born, the families of Gershon were outstripped in fame by their younger brethren of Kohath, from whom sprang Moses and the priestly line of Aaron.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
his banishment; the change of pilgrimage
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 17 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 17 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
