Gedor

Gedor ("a wall") was a town in the hill country of Judah south of Bethlehem (Joshua 15:58, 1 Chronicles 4:18). It rose to a brief moment of historical importance during the Simeonite expansion recorded in 1 Chronicles 4:39-43: in the days of King Hezekiah, the Simeonite leaders pushed beyond their traditional Negev territory "to the entrance of Gedor, to the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks." They found rich grazing land there, and they struck down the Hamite shepherds who had been living there from of old, destroying their tents and the Meunim and settling in their place. The expansion gives a quiet snapshot of the Simeonites' continuing pressure on their southern and western frontiers even as the larger northern kingdom was collapsing under Assyrian invasion. The site of Gedor is generally identified with Khirbet Jedur near Bethel, though a separate Gedor in the southern Negev would fit the 1 Chronicles 4 narrative better.