Endnote 14 – Rediscovered! The Land of Geshur

See 2 Samuel 2:1–4, which says that Abner, Saul’s army commander, took Saul’s son Ish-bosheth (his name was in actually Ish-Baal) across the Jordan to Mahanaim and made him king over Gilead, the Ashurites and other areas. In place of “Ashurites,” the Latin Vulgate and the Syriac translation of the Bible known as the Peshita read “Geshurites.” It has been suggested that “Geshurites” is the correct reading: see Aryeh Bartal, The Kingdom of Saul (Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1984), pp. 102–104 (in Hebrew).