Gibeon
The city of
Gibeon (
Hebrew: ×'בען) is located about 6 miles (10 km) north of the center of
Jerusalem. Gibeon's location has long been connected with the modern
Arab village of
el-Jib.
Joshua's treaty with the Hivites
After the destruction of
Jericho and
Ai, the people of Gibeon (
Hivites) realized that their destruction was next, so they sent ambassadors to trick
Joshua and the people of
Israel into making a treaty with them. Israel had been commanded by God to destroy all of the people in the land of
Canaan, so the Gibeonites told Israel that they were from a distant land. So without consulting God, Israel made a mutual defense agreement with the Gibeonites. When Joshua discovered that he had been deceived, he still kept his covenant with the Gibeonites, but he forced them to be woodcutters and water-carriers for Israel (Joshua 9:3-27).
Other references
Gibeon was located in the tribal territory of
Benjamin (Joshua 18:25), and it was made a
Levitical City (Joshua 21:17). The fight between the soldiers of
Joab and those of
Abner took place beside the
Pool of Gibeon (2 Samuel 2:12). It was in this area that
David conquered the
Philistines (2 Samuel 5:25 and 1 Chronicles 14:16).
Amasa was also killed here (2 Samuel 20:8). There was a "great high place" in Gibeon where
Solomon offered one thousand
burnt offerings (1 Kings 3:4). On this occasion the God appeared to him in a dream (1 Kings 3:15).
Hananiah came from this city (Jeremiah 28:1). After the exile of the Israelites to
Babylon, Gibeon belonged to
Judea (Nehemiah 3:7).
Excavated by
James B. Pritchard in 1956-7, 1959-60, and 1962, Gibeon has significant remains especially from the days of the Israelites. Impressive among these finds are 63 wine cellars from the
8th to
7th century BC. Hebrew inscriptions of ×'בען (GBN) on the handles of wine storage jars, most of which were excavated from a large pool matching the biblical description, made the identification of Gibeon secure and a landmark product of
biblical archaeology. Pritchard published articles on their production of wine, the Hebrew inscriptions, the rock-cut wine cellars, and the well engineered water conduits that supplied the city water.
Archaeologists believe that the site has been occupied during parts of the
Early Bronze Age (c.3500-2000 BC), most of the
Middle Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC), and in the latter part of the
Late Bronze Age (c.1600-1200 BC) which is just before Joshua's conquest of Canaan. Gibeon was possibly a dependency of the
city-state Jerusalem, and it was probably not fortified at the time.
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Gibeon (BiblePlaces.com) includes pictures
