A city located in territory that would later be assigned to the tribe of Benjamin (Jos 18:25; 21:17). Archaeologists identify the ancient city with the Arab village of el-Jib, about 8 km north-west of Jerusalem. The Gibeonites are most popularly remembered for deceiving Joshua, by means of the ruse that they had come from far away, into making a covenant of peace with them.
The first time the Old Testament refers to the city is in the context of the ruse—they claimed to have come from very far away—by its inhabitants to get Joshua and the invading Israelites to make a peace treaty with them (Jos 9:3-15). When the Israelites found out they had been tricked they could not go back on the peace they promised, so they made them "woodcutters and water carriers for the community and for the altar of the Lord at the place the Lord would choose" (v27).
The pact, however, sparked an unforeseen consequence:
Now Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and were living near them. He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters.
Adoni-Zedek founded a coalition of five Amorite city-states and attacked the Israelites in the famous battle in which "the sun stood over Gibeon" (Jos 10:12).
At the end of the conquest Gibeon was assigned to the Levites from the tribe of Benjamin (Jos 21:17).
Gibeon disappears from the OT narrative until many decades later when, in the city, David's men met those of Ish-Bosheth, Saul's son, at the city and fell into a grievious and pretty senseless fight (2 Sam 2ff). The pool where they met (v13) was very likely the circular cistern uncovered by archaeologists in the 1960's. More than 11m wide, 10m deep, and connected to a water chamber by a tunnel some 13m long, it is one of the most conspicuous features of excavated Gibeon.
Blood-bath continues to characterize Gibeon's mention in the Old Testament when Joab, David's commander of his army, killed David's newly appointed commander of his army Amasa, in a seeming accident, spilling his intestines out in the middle of the road (2 Sam 20:8-12). Joab, however, seemed totally indifferent to the death of his cousin though.
One of the most emotionally pregnant events in Israel's history also has to do with Gibeon but of which also we know little. During a prolonged famine in the land, David had enquired of the Lord about the matter and was told that it was on account of Saul who "n his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them" (2 Sam 21:2). Asked what David as king could do for them about it, they asked for seven of Saul's male descedants to be given over to them to be killed and exposed (v6). David consented.
He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed and exposed them on a hill before the Lord. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning. Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds of the air touch them by day or the wild animals by night. When David was told what Aiah's daughter Rizpah, Saul's concubine, had done, he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. . . . David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there, and the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up. They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul's father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. (vv9-14)
In Solomon's time Gibeon was considered "the most important high place" and it was there that God appeared to Solomon in a dream and offered him whatever he would ask, and he responded by asking for wisdom (1 Ki 3:4-15).
After this Gibeon does not appear again in any significant way in the history of the nation.
The Gibeonites must have known that their ruse would be found out eventually, ane anticipated what the consequences afterwards would be. But forced to recognize that they were—despite their reputation as a city of "good fighters" (Jos 10:2)—no match for the Israelites they surrendered their tribal pride in exchange for life, perhaps hoping that the time thus bought would open new possibilities. What they failed to do, which ultimately doomed them as a people, was to surrender to Israel's God rather than to Israel; He alone offered true life and hope.
©ALBERITH
160116lch-u051221