GIRZITES

People living in southwest Canaan who were raided by David when at Ziklag (1 Sm 27:8, kjv “Gezrites”). The Hebrew text has girzi, while the marginal variant transposes two consonants to read gizri, “Gezrites.” The Greek version follows the Hebrew marginal variant. The confusion of the name is obviously early. If “Gerzites” is the original, they could have been a Canaanite tribe living in the Mt Gerizim area. If it was “Gezrites” originally, the people could have migrated from Gezer. They are otherwise unmentioned in the OT.