Geder

Geder was one of the thirty-one Canaanite city-state kingdoms that Joshua and the tribes of Israel defeated in the conquest of the land west of the Jordan (Joshua 12:13). The list in Joshua 12:7-24 catalogs all the kings Israel struck down "in the land of Canaan on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak which rises toward Seir" — including Hebron, Jerusalem, Ai, Jarmuth, Lachish, Eglon, Debir, and many smaller royal towns. Geder appears between Eglon and Hormah in the catalog, suggesting a location somewhere in the Shephelah lowlands or the western Negev frontier between Judah and the coastal plain. The exact site has not been securely identified; some scholars connect it to Khirbet Jadireh or to one of several tells in the southern Shephelah whose ancient names have been lost. The name may be related to Gedor, Gederoth, and Gederah — a cluster of similarly-named Shephelah fortified towns whose root meaning is "stone wall."