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Gershom was the firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah, and his descendant Jonathan served as a priest for the idolatrous Danites.

Gershom was the firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah, born during Moses' exile in Midian (Exo 2:22). His name, which means "a stranger there," reflects Moses' feelings of being a foreigner in a strange land. Later, when Moses returned to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of slavery, Gershom and his brother Eliezer were reunited with their father (Exo 18:3-4). As a descendant of Levi, Gershom and his descendants were counted among the Levites and assigned duties in the tabernacle and temple service (1Ch.23.15-16; 26.24). However, one of Gershom's descendants, Jonathan, became involved in idolatrous worship. According to Jdg 18:30, Jonathan and his sons served as priests for the tribe of Dan, who had set up a graven image and a shrine. This incident highlights the spiritual decline among some of the Levites and the Israelites during the period of the judges. Despite this unfaithful descendant, Gershom's lineage remained significant within the Levitical priesthood, as evidenced by the mention of his descendants in the genealogies of Chronicles.

The elder of the two sons of Moses born to him in Midian (Ex. 2:22; 18:3). On his way to Egypt with his family, in obedience to the command of the Lord, Moses was attacked by a sudden and dangerous illness (4:24-26), which Zipporah his wife believed to have been sent because he had neglected to circumcise his son. She accordingly took a “sharp stone” and circumcised her son Gershom, saying, “Surely a bloody husband art thou to me”, i.e., by the blood of her child she had, as it were, purchased her husband, had won him back again.