gibeah Summary and Overview

a hill or hill-town, "of Benjamin" (1 Sam. 13:15), better known as "Gibeah of Saul" (11:4; Isa. 10:29). It was here that the terrible outrage was committed on the Levite's concubine which led to the almost utter extirpation of the tribe of Benjamin (Judg. 19; 20), only six hundred men surviving after a succession of disastrous battles. This was the birthplace of Saul, and continued to be his residence after he became king (1 Sam. 10:26; 11:4; 15:34). It was reckoned among the ancient sanctuaries of Israel (10:26; 15:34; 23:19; 26:1; 2 Sam. 21:6-10), and hence it is called "Gibeah of God" (1 Sam. 10:5, R.V. marg.). It has been identified with the modern Tell el-Ful (i.e., "hill of the bean"), about 3 miles north of Jerusalem.

GIB'EAH (a hill), the name of several towns. 1. Gibeah in the hill-country of Judah, Josh 15:57; now probably Jeboh, 10 miles north of Hebron. This is doubted by Grove, but supported by Robinson, Porter, and Conder. 2. Gibeah of Benjamin, 1 Sam 13:2; first mentioned in Jud 19; a shameful crime by some of its people nearly destroyed the tribe of Benjamin, Jud 20-21. It is generally regarded the same as Gibeah of Saul, and located at Tuleil el-Ful, "hill of beans," 4 miles north of Jerusalem, and east of the road from Jerusalem to Nabulus (Shechem). 3. Gibeah of Saul is held by most authorities to be the same as Gibeah of Benjamin, but Baedeker's Hand-book assumes that they are distinct cities, and holds that Geba and Gibeah were sometimes confounded. For in 1 Sam 14:1-15, Geba near Michmash, or Jeba, would answer the conditions of Jonathan's exploit, but V. 1 Sam 14:16 suddenly takes us back to Gibeah of Benjamin, toward which the Philistines would hardly have retreated if any other route was open to them. Again, in 1 Sam 13:2, 1 Sam 13:15, Jonathan is at Gibeah of Benjamin, and Samuel also, but in v. 1 Sam 13:3 Jonathan smites the Philistines at Gebah, and he and Saul remain at "Geba," as many versions read, and Gibeah, as in our English version. For notices of Gibeah of Saul, see 1 Sam 10:26; 1 Sam 11:4; 1 Sam 15:34; 1 Sam 22:6; 1 Sam 23:19; Isa 10:29, etc. In the first passage it is called "Gibeah Elohim," meaning, in the Hebrew, "Gibeah of God," or "the hill," as our version reads in 1 Sam 7:1, and correctly. 4. Gibeah in Kirjath-jearim was no doubt a hill in that city, 2 Sam 6:3-4, on which the house of Abinadab stood, where the ark was left. 5. Gibeah in the field, Jud 20:31; probably the same as Geba. 6. Gibeah-haaraloth, Josh 5:3, margin. See Gilgal.

From a root gabah, "round", gibbos; a "hill", less than a "mountain," har. Applied to the bore rounded hills of central Israel. 1. A city in the mountain region of Judah, S.E. of Hebron, named with Maon and southern Carmel (Joshua 15:55; Joshua 15:57; 1 Chronicles 2:49). 2. GIBEATH, a town of Benjamin, among the last next Jerusalem (Joshua 18:28), possibly the "Gibeah of Saul," only that the latter was close to Gibeon and Ramah, five miles N. of Jerusalem, and if Saul's Gibeah were meant we should expect it mentioned with those two towns in Joshua 18:25. "Gibeah of Saul" occurs 1 Samuel 10:26; 1 Samuel 11:4; 1 Samuel 15:34; 2 Samuel 21:6; Isaiah 10:29. Now Tuleil el ful, "the hill of the beans" (a conical peak commanding an extensive view, about an hour from Jerusalem, on the road to Er-Ram, with a large heap of stones on the top, the ruins of a town built of unhewn stones), called by Josephus (B. J., 5:2, section 1) Gabath saoule, 30 stadia from Jerusalem, chosen retributively, as being Saul's residence, for the hanging of his seven sons "before the Lord" (i.e. as in the presence of Him the righteous Judge who appointed the retributive justice, 2 Samuel 21:14 ff; 2 Samuel 21:9), by the Gibeonites in revenge for his attempt to slay them in violation of the covenant. It is the Gibeah of Benjamin destroyed by the other tribes under the Judges (Judges 19; 20) for the flagrant abomination perpetrated there. It was then a "city" with the usual open "street" or square, having its "700 chosen men," probably the same as the "left handed men who could sling stones at an hair breadth and not miss" (Judges 20:15-16). The Levite left Bethlehem at "the tent pitching time of day" (Judges 19:9, margin), about three in the afternoon. At five he would "come over against Jehus," and at seven would be four miles N. of Jerusalem on the Shechem (Nablus) road toward mount Ephraim. Ramah and Gibeah were now near; Gibeah nearest. The suddenness of sunset in that region made him "turn aside" hither for the night, where the tragedy of the concubine ensued. The track N. of Gibeah branches into two, one leading to Bethel the "house of God," the other to "Gibeah ("Geba") in the field" sadeh, "cultivated ground"), now Jeba, below which at the base of the hill from whence Gibeah is named was the cave (Syriac, the Hebrew "treeless meadows" will mean not their place of ambush but the open ground across which they advanced to the town) of Gibeah "where the liers in wait hid" (Judges 20:31-33, margin). "Gibeah of Benjamin" was occupied by Jonathan with 1,000 chosen men, three miles in the S. rear of the Philistine camp at Geba on the S. side of the wady Suweinit (1 Samuel 13:2). Saul was in their front at Michmash, holding also mount Bethel on the N. side of the wady Suweinit. Jonathan smote the garrison at Geba, and the Philistines in consequence gathering a vast host drove Saul's little army before them out of Bethel and Michmash down the eastern passes to Gilgal near Jericho, in the Jordan valley; took Michmash, Saul's former quarters, and sent out plunderers N.,W., and E. Jonathan however held a force in Gibeah (1 Samuel 14:2) where Saul, Samuel, and Ahiah the priest with the ephod joined him from Gilgal (1 Samuel 13:7). Then followed the gallant stealthy assault of the Philistine garrison by Jonathan and his armor-bearer, the first knowledge of which was conveyed to Saul by his watchmen in Gibeah, who at dawn saw "the multitude melting away and beating down one another." Saul first called the muster roll to discover the absentees; next he consulted the oracle of God; but when the noise in the Philistine host increased, with irreverent impatience (Isaiah 28:16) he desired the priest to stop the consultation, and put himself at the head of the people who, now that the Philistines fled, flocked to him from all their hiding places in Mount Ephraim.