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Gerar - meaning "lodging-place" – was a Philistine town and district in what is today south central Israel, mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible.
Map of Ezor Gerar, Israel
Biblically, the town features in two of the three Wife-sister narratives in Genesis. These record that Abraham and Isaac each stayed at Gerar, near what became Beersheba, and that each passed his wife off as his sister, leading to complications involving Gerar's Philistine king, Abimelech. (Genesis 20:1, and Genesis 26:1) The Haggadah identifies the two references to Abimelech as two separate people, the second being the first Abimelech's son, and that his original name was Benmelech ["son of the King"], but he changed his name to his father's, meaning "my father is king".
According to Easton's Bible Dictionary the Biblical valley of Gerar (Genesis 26:17) was probably the modern Wadi el-Jerdr. Currently it is believed to be the valley of Nahal Gerar. The region was later known as Haluza.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Dr. William Smith's Bible Dictionary, and Thompson's Chain Topics all state simply that it was "south of Gaza".
In 2 Chronicles 14:12-15, Gerar and its surrounding towns figure in the account of King Asa's defeat of Zerah's vast Cushite forces.