Person Old Testament
Gershom
Gershom was the firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah, and his descendant Jonathan served as a priest for the idolatrous Danites. Mentioned in 6 verses across 3 books, first at Exodus 2:22.
Why it matters. Son of Moses; father of Jonathan, a renegade priest.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Gershom
Gershom was the firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah, born during Moses' exile in Midian (Exo.2.22). His name, which means "a stranger there," reflects Moses' feelings of being a foreigner in a strange land. Later, when Moses returned to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of slavery, Gershom and his brother Eliezer were reunited with their father (Exo.18.3-4). As a descendant of Levi, Gershom and his descendants were counted among the Levites and assigned duties in the tabernacle and temple service (1Ch.23.15-16; 26.24). However, one of Gershom's descendants, Jonathan, became involved in idolatrous worship. According to Jdg.18.30, Jonathan and his sons served as priests for the tribe of Dan, who had set up a graven image and a shrine. This incident highlights the spiritual decline among some of the Levites and the Israelites during the period of the judges. Despite this unfaithful descendant, Gershom's lineage remained significant within the Levitical priesthood, as evidenced by the mention of his descendants in the genealogies of Chronicles.
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
No reviewed connections yet.
Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
- Siblings
- Eliezer
Appears in Scripture
Named in 6 verses across 3 books. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.