GirgashitesHebrew: גִּרְגָּשִׁי are one of the tribes who had invaded the land of Canaan as mentioned in Gen. 15:21; Deut. 7:1; Josh. 3:10; Neh.[1] 9:8. The Girgashites are also known as the fifth ethnic group that descended from Canaan (Gen. 10:16; i Chron. 1:14).[2] Although the Girgashites are not referred to in the narrative of the wars of conquests,[3] and their locality is not stated, they are named by Joshua among the peoples the Israelites dispossessed (24:11).[4]
This apparent inconsistency may be due to their emigrating to North Africa prior to the Israelites entering the land.[5] That contention is further supported by Procopius (Wars 4.10.13-22), stating that the Phoenician diaspora settled in the western end of the Mediterranean, in the vicinity of later day Carthage. [6]
They have been uncertainly identified with the Qaraqisha, allies of the Hittites in their wars with Rameses II.[7] If that identification is correct the Girgashites would have been part of the southward migrations from Anatolia of peoples displaced by the fall of the Hittite empire ca. 1200 b.c.e. A personal name grgš appears in Ugaritic, but its connection with this people is unknown.[8]
The sibilant termination of the biblical name suggests a Hurrian origin.[9]