Gera

גרא


Genesis 46:21 names him as a son of Bela ben Bin-Yamin.

Judges 3:15 has Ehud (אהוד), a son of Gera the Benjamite, who was left-handed and a judge of Yisra-El.

2 Samuel 16:5 has Shim'i (שמעי), the son of yet another Gera; Shim'i was the man who stoned and insulted King David while he was fleeing from Yeru-Shala'im at the time of Av-Shalom's coup.

The text of Chronicles, as so often, is confusing, in part because of contradictions in the text, in part because the grammar and syntax is imprecise. Nevertheless, 1 Chronicles 8:3 tells us that Gera was Bin-Yamin's grandson through Bela, rather than the son that we were told in Genesis 46:21; however it actually names two Geras among Bela's sons, which is unusual to say the least.

8:6 then tells us of a man named Echud (אֵחוּד), whose place in this genealogical table is unclear as he has never been mentioned before, unless Echud is a diminutive of Achi-Chud (אֲחִיחֻד), another of Bela's sons (8:7) - which is logical, but how are we supposed to know? Or is Echud another of those dialect variations that we have witnessed in other aspects of the Av-Raham tales - Haran and Charan, Av-Ram and Av-Raham, Sarai and Sarah, Havel and Chevel et cetera; Echud then being a variant of the Ehud in Judges 3:15? Indeed, many translations (including the one at the link) render this Echud as Ehud, presumably because they are assuming that it is the same name.

The same verse then lists this Echud's sons, who went with him into exile from Geva (גֶבַע) to Manachat (מָנָחַת), and in what must be taken for a parenthesis, though the Yehudit text has no punctuation of any kind and so this verse is incredibly difficult to navigate, appears to name the men who took them captive as Na'aman (נַעֲמָן), Achi-Yah (אֲחִיָּה) and Gera, though whether this Gera is one of the two sons of Bela, or a completely different Gera, it is impossible to say.

Is it possible that Bela (בָ֑לַע) was simply a dialect variation of Ba'al (בעל), even possibly a spelling error for Ba'al? I ask because he was the sun-god, and in all these cults the son of the sun-god is the corn-god; and it just happens, by extraordinary coincidence and for no other possible explanation, that GERA means "grain"? For a more detailed explanation of its significance, see notes to Bela.

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