גָּרַשׁ
ga.rash
to drive out: drive out
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Garásh: To Drive Out The Hebrew verb גָּרַשׁ (garásh) carries the fundamental meaning of forcible removal or expulsion. Appearing 38 times throughout the biblical text, it describes the action of compelling someone or something to leave a place—not through persuasion or invitation, but through active force or authority. The word's definition encompasses both the physical act of driving and the resulting state of removal, suggesting an energetic, decisive action rather than a gradual process. Given its frequency in biblical narrative, garásh functions as a standard term for describing displacements and expulsions across various contexts. The word appears suited to both literal scenarios (removing someone from a location) and more figurative applications where entities are driven away. Its consistent usage pattern across 38 biblical occurrences indicates this was a commonly employed verb for depicting forced separation or removal, making it a reliable linguistic marker whenever such actions are described in the Hebrew scriptures. The prevalence of this term reflects the biblical world's engagement with themes of displacement, territorial control, and authority to exclude. Whether applied to individuals, groups, or abstract forces, garásh communicates that removal has occurred through decisive action rather than accident or mutual agreement—a distinction that carries weight in narratives concerned with power, belonging, and boundaries.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
38 total occurrences across the text
behold, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit.
Job 30:5They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief;
Psalms 34:0of/ David when/ changed/ he obj. sense/ his to/ before Abimelech and/ he drove away/ him and/ he went
Psalms 80:8You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it.
Proverbs 22:10Drive out the mocker, and strife will go out; yes, quarrels and insults will stop.
Isaiah 57:20But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can’t rest and its waters cast up mire and mud.
Isaiah 57:20But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can’t rest and its waters cast up mire and mud.
Ezekiel 31:11I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. He will surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness.
Amos 8:8Won’t the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt.
Jonah 2:4I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
Zephaniah 2:4For Gaza will be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation. They will drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron will be rooted up.
Psalms 78:55He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
Genesis 3:24So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 4:14Behold, you have driven me out today from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me.”
Exodus 2:17The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
Exodus 6:1Yahweh said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for by a strong hand he shall let them go, and by a strong hand he shall drive them out of his land.”
Exodus 10:11Not so! Go now you who are men, and serve Yahweh; for that is what you desire!” Then they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
Exodus 11:1Yahweh said to Moses, “I will bring yet one more plague on Pharaoh, and on Egypt; afterwards he will let you go. When he lets you go, he will surely thrust you out altogether.
Exodus 11:1Yahweh said to Moses, “I will bring yet one more plague on Pharaoh, and on Egypt; afterwards he will let you go. When he lets you go, he will surely thrust you out altogether.
Exodus 12:39They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt; for it wasn’t leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and couldn’t wait, and they had not prepared any food for themselves.
Exodus 23:28I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.
Exodus 23:29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you.
Exodus 23:30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.
Exodus 23:31I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
Exodus 33:2I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Exodus 34:11Observe that which I command you today. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Numbers 22:6Please come now therefore, and curse this people for me; for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall prevail, that we may strike them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”
Numbers 22:11‘Behold, the people that has come out of Egypt covers the surface of the earth. Now, come curse me them. Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them out.’ ”
Deuteronomy 33:27The eternal God is your dwelling place. Underneath are the everlasting arms. He thrust out the enemy from before you, and said, ‘Destroy!’
Joshua 24:12I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow.
Joshua 24:18Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is our God.”
Judges 2:3Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’ ”
Judges 6:9I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land.
Judges 9:41Abimelech lived at Arumah; and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, that they should not dwell in Shechem.
Judges 11:7Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?”
1 Samuel 26:19Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is so that Yahweh has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, they are cursed before Yahweh; for they have driven me out today that I shouldn’t cling to Yahweh’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!’
1 Kings 2:27So Solomon thrust Abiathar out from being priest to Yahweh, that he might fulfill Yahweh’s word, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
1 Chronicles 17:21What one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, to make you a name by great and awesome things, in driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeem out of Egypt?