According to the explanation in the Bible, the name Gershom (which is sometimes replaced the name "Gershon") is derived of the word גֵּר (ger, "foreign"). Of Gershom, the elder son of Moses, the Bible says: "And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land" (Exodus 2, 22).