To this high place, wherever situated, the " taber- nacle of the congregation"' — the sacred tent which had accompanied the children of Israel through the whole of their wanderings — had been transferred from its last station at Nob. The exact date of the transfer is left in uncertaint}'. It was either before or at the time when David brought up the ark from Kirjath-jearim to the new tent which he had pitched for it on INIount Zion, that the original tent was spread for the last time at(jibeon. The expression in '2Chron.i,5, "The brazen altar he put before the tabernacle of Jehovah," at first sight appears to refer to David. But the text of the passage is disputed, and the authorities are divided be- tween D'O, " he put," and C'lJ, " was there." Wheth- er king David transferred the tabernacle to Gibeon or not, he certainly appointed the staff of priests to offer the daily sacrifices there on the brazen altar of jNIoses, and to fulfil the other requirements of the law (1 Chron. xvi, 40), with no less a person at their head than Zadok the priest (ver. 39), assisted by the famous musicians Heman and Jeduthun (ver. 41).
■ One of the earliest acts of Solomon's reign — it must have been while the remembrance of the execution of Joab was still fresh — was to visit Gibeon. The cere- monial was truly magnificent : he went up with all the conLjregation, the great officers of the state — the cap- tains of hundreds and tliousands, the judges, the gov- ernors, and the chief of the fathers — and the sacrifice consisted of a thousand burnt-offerings (1 Kings iii, 4). This glimpse of Gibeon in all the splendor of its great- est prosperity — the smoke of the thousand animals ris- ing from the venerable altar on the commanding height of "the great high place"'^the clung of "trumpets, and cymbals, and musical instruments of God" (1 Chron. xvi, 42) resounding through the vallej-s far and near — is virtualh' the last we have of it. In a few years the Temple at Jerusalem was completed, and then the, tabernacle was once more taken down and removed. Again "all the men of Israel assem- bled themselves" to king Solomon, with the "elders of Israel," and the priests and the Levites brought up both the tabernacle and the ark, and "all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle" (1 Kings viii, 3; Joseph. yln<. viii, 4, 1), and placed the venerable relics in their new home, there to remain until the plunder of the city by Nebuchadnezzar. The introduction of the name of Gibeon in 1 Chron. ix, 3."), which seems so abrupt, is probalilj' due to tfie fact that the jjreceding verses of the chapter contain, as they appear to do, a
list of the staff attached to the "tabernacle of the congregation" whicii was erected there; or if these persons should prove to be the attendants on the " new- tent" which David had pitched for the ark on its ar- rival in the city of David, the transition to the place where the old tent was still standing is both natural and easy.
It would be verj' satisfactory to believe, with Thomson {Land and the Booh, ii, 547), that the pres- ent wady Suleiman, i. e. "Solomon's valley," which commences on the west side of Gibeon, and leads down to tlie Plain of Sharon, derived its name from this visit. But the modern names of places in Palestine often spring from very modern persons or circumstances, and, without confirmation or investigation, this cannot be received with certainty.- — Smith, s. v.
Gib'eonite (Heb. Gihoni' , ''yj'Zl ; Sept. ra/3aw- viT)):/), the designation of the people of the Canaanitish cit}' GiBEOX (q. v.), and perhaps also of the three cities associated with Gibeon (Josh, ix, 17) — Hivites ; who, on the discoverj' of the stratagem }>y which they had obtained the protection of the Israelites, were con- demned to be perpetual bondmen, hewers of wood and draw'ers of water for the congregation, and for the house of God and altar of Jehovah (Josh, ix, 23, 27). The compact, although tlie punishment of fraud, was faithfully observed on both sides (see Benzel, Syntagm. disserU.iW^lTi sq.). Saul, however, appears to have broken this covenant, and in a fit of enthusiasm or pa- triotism to have killed some, and devised a general massacre of the rest (2 Sam. xxi, 1, 2, 5). This was expiated many years after bj' David, at the suggestion of the priestly oracle, giving up seven men of Saul's descenclants to the Gibeonites, who hung them or cru- cified them "before Jehovah" — as a kind of sacrifice — in Gibeah, Saul's own town (4, G, 9). At this time, or, at any rate, at the time of the composition of the nar- rative, the Gibeonites were so identified with Israel that the historian is obliged to insert a note explain- ing their origin and their non-Israelite extraction (xxi, 2). The actual name "Gibeonites" appears only in this passage of 2 Sam. — Smith, s. v. There is not the slightest evidence for the allegation which has been sometimes made against David, that he purposely con- trived or greedily fell in with this device, in order to weaken^he house of Saul and jJace it imdcr a darker stigma. On the contrary, David's conduct throughout to that house was in the highest degree generous and noble ; and at the very time when this fresh public calaniit}' befell it, he took occasion to have the bones of Saul and Jonathan, along with the bones of the sev- en now pul)liely hanged, gathered together and honor- ably buried in the sepulchre of Kish. — Fairbairn, s. v. See David. From this time there is no mention of the Gibeonites as a distinct people ; but most writers suppose they were included among the Nethinim, who were appointed for the service of the Temple (1 Chron. ix, 2). Those of the Canaanites who were aftei wards subdued and had their lives spared were probably add- ed to ther Gibeonites. We see in Ezra viii, 20 ; ii, 58 ; 1 Kings ix, 20, 21, that David, Solomon, and the princes of Judah gave nuun' such to the Lord ; these Netliinim being carried into captivity with Judah and the Le- vites, many of them returned with Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah, and continued, as before, in the service of the Teniide, under the priests and Levites. — Calmet, s. V. (See De Platen, De religione Gibeonilai'wn, Post. 1703; Fecht, ?f7. ib. 1731.) See Nethinim.