(3) In the appendix to 2 S (21-24) Gibeah ia mentioned as the scene of the tragic incident of the hanging of the seven sons of Saul (2S21'"'*). The famine, which had troubled the land for three years, is declared by J " to be due to the slaughter of the Gibeonites by Saul, though no such act is recorded in the history of Saul's reign. To appease the wrath of J", seven descendants of Saul were h.anded over to the Gibeonites, and hanged by them. See RlZPAH.
(4) Lastly, in the imaginative description of the march of Sennacherib against Jerusalem given by Isaiah (lU-"'*-), the A.ssyrians are represented as advancing in a straight line from the North, un- deterred by any obstacle. The prophet depicts the last stages of tlieir victorious advance ; the passage of the .steeii defile of the Wddy Siiweinit is secured by despatcliing a troop in advance to Migron, S. of the pass ; the main army is thus enabled to cross in safety, and encamps at Geba ; while the villagers of lianiah and Gibeah take refuge in flight (cf. Driver, Isaiah, pp. 71, 72). The passage is im- port.ant as estalihshing the fact that Geba and Gibeah were two distinct places.
3. There are several place-names compounded with Gibeah (or Gibeath, nj,:? the st. miixtr.), which are translated in the RV te.\t bj- ' hill,' but given as ' Gibeali ' in the margin. These are —
(1) Giliralh huaralnlh (n\S-ii:n ny?;), 'the hill of the foreskins' (.los 5'), between the Jordan and Jericho, .so called as the scene of the circunu'ision, after the passage of the Jordan. See Gilgal.
(2) Gibmth-Phinehas (cnj-s nr::), 'the hill of P.' in Mt. Eiihraim (Jos 24**). The exact site is unknown. Conder (PEF Mini. ii. 218) follows Scliwarz(//Ap. 118) in identifying it \\\{\\'AH'ertah near Nahli'i.i (Shecheni) ; so apparently G. A. Smith. Gucrin {.liidi'r, iii. pp. 37, 38 ; Snmarie, pp. 106-100), chiefly on the aiitliority of .lerome (£)). 1. 888), identifies it with Jiliia, three miles N. of Kuryct el-Enab (so Dillmann).
(3) (lihcath hnmmdreh (n-p.n "j), ' the hill of Moreli,' usually identified with the modern Jelnl Dnhy, a slight eminence on the N. side of the valley above Shuiiem (Siilam). On this view, which identifies 'the spring of llarod' (which see) with '.1 iii Jidful, at the foot of Mt. (iilboa, alM)ut half an hour to the E. of Jezreel {/ier'in), the camps of Gideon and the Midianites (Jg 7') would occupy much the same position as those taken up at a later period liy Saul and the Philistines (1 S '28', cf. 2',l'). So G. A. Smith, Jliit. (Jeug. p. 3!I7 f. ; Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, 1850, p. 341 f. Moore, liovevei
170
GIBEATH
GIBEON
(Judges, p. 200 f.), objects that this view ia based on the notice in 6^, which is not from the same source as 7' (J), and prefers therefore to place G. hnmmoreh near Shechem (Gn 12*, Dt 11*). See
MOUEII.
(4) Gibeath lia-Elohim (a-nhxn "i), 'the hill of God,' probably the same as Gibeah 2. It was the spot at which Saul, on his return from the city of Samuel, was to meet a band of the prophets (1 S 10»). In V." it is called Gibeah, or ' the hill ' simply ; and as it is stated that there was a garrison (or ratlier ' pillar') of the Philistines there, it may safely be inferred that it is identical with ' G. of Benjamin ' (cf. 13-- ' ; in t.* we must read Gibeah for Geba).
(5) Gibeath ha-HachUah (1 S 23'» 26'). See Hachilah.
(6) Gibeath Ammah (1 S 2=^). See Ammah.
(7) Gibeath Gareb (Jer Sl^^). See Gareb.
J. F. Stenning. GIBEATH (nf33), Jos 18^=Gibeah No. 2 (which see). Gibeathite ('ny??), 1 Ch 12^ gentilic name from Gibeah (of Benjamin ?).
GIBEON {\WV> ro/3o<ii'). — An ancient city of Canaan belonging to the Hivites* (Jos 9"), and apparently the capital of a small independent state (9'") ; it was ' a great city, as one of the royal cities . . . greater than Ai' (10-). It was later assigned to the tribe of Benjamin (IS"), and was eventually made over with its suburbs to the descendants of Aaron (21").
The identity of G. with the village of el-Jib, which lies some 5 or 6 miles to the N.W. of Jerusalem, is practically beyond dispute. The modern village still preserves the first part of the older name, while its situation agrees in every respect with the requirements of the history of the OT. Just beyond Tell el-Ful (Gibeah), the main N. road from Jerusalem to Beitin (Bethel) is joined by a branch road leading up from the coast. The lat ter forms the continuation of the most southerly of the three routes which connect the Jordan Valley with the Maritime Plain (Smith, HGHL p. 248 f . ) After the Israelites had crossed the Jordan at Gilgal and destroyed Jericho, their most direct means of access to the central plateau lay by the Wddy Suweinit. From Michmash at the head of the valley the way ran almost straight across the tableland to the vale of Aijalon. Kow, just before this road leaves the higher ground and descends into the Shephelah, it divides into two, the one branch leading down by the Wddy Selman, the other running in a more northerly direction by way of the two Bethhorons (Smith, HGHL p. 210 n. 2). Here, on this open fertile plateau, slightly to the S. of the main road, rises the hill on which the modern village of el-Jib is built, right on the frontier line which traverses tlie central range to the S. of Bethel. It was this natural pass across Palestine which in early times served as the political border between N. and S. Israel, and it was owing to its position on this frontier that G. acquired so much prominence in the reigns of David and Solomon. A short distance to the E. of the village, at the foot of the hUl, there is further a stone tank or reservoir of con- siderable size, supplied by a spring, which rises in a cave higher up. Tims we find that the physical features of the modern el-Jib correspond in every respect with those of the ancient Gibeon as set forth in the historical books of the OT.