Gershom

Gershom was the firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah, born during Moses' time in Midian. Moses named him Gershom because he had been a stranger in a foreign land. Gershom's descendants later served as priests, and he is distinguished from Gershon, the firstborn son of Levi.

Etymology & Roots

Gershom derives from the Hebrew גֵּרְשֹׁם (Gershom), most commonly understood as a compound of גֵּר (ger), meaning 'sojourner' or 'stranger,' and שָׁם (sham), meaning 'there,' yielding 'stranger there' or 'sojourner in a foreign land.' Moses himself provides this etymology at the name's first occurrence (Exodus 2:22): 'I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.'

Some scholars propose an alternative derivation from גָּרַשׁ (garash), meaning 'to drive out' or 'to expel,' which would give 'driven out.' The name captures the liminal existence of its bearer between worlds.

Biblical Bearers

Gershom appears as the firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah, born in Midian during Moses' exile from Egypt (Exodus 2:22; 18:3). His descendants served as priests at the sanctuary at Dan (Judges 18:30), where they maintained an idolatrous cult — a notable irony given their ancestry. A second Gershom is listed as a son of Levi (later consistently spelled Gershon), ancestor of the Gershonite clan of Levites who bore the tabernacle's fabric coverings (Genesis 46:11; Numbers 3:17–26).

A third, minor Gershom appears in Ezra 8:2.

Theological Significance

Moses' naming of his son Gershom memorializes the existential experience of sojourning — dwelling as a foreigner in a land not one's own. This theme resonates throughout Scripture as both biographical description and theological metaphor. The patriarchs were sojourners in Canaan; Israel sojourned in Egypt; the exiles sojourned in Babylon.

The New Testament applies this image to believers as 'strangers and exiles' (Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11), suggesting that the sojourner condition is not merely a temporary hardship but a permanent posture of the people of God who seek a heavenly homeland.

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