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ibeah

Smith's Bible Dictionary

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Gib'e-ah. A word employed in the Bible to denote a hill. Like most words of this kind, it gave its name to several towns and places in Palestine, which would doubtless be generally on or near a hill. They are -

1. Gibeah, a city in the mountain district of Judah, named with Maon and the southern Carmel, Joshua 15:57, and compare 1 Chronicles 2:49, etc.

2. Gibeah of Benjamin, first appears in the tragical story of the Levite and his concubine. Judges 19:20. It was then a "city," with the usual open street or square, Judges 19:15; Judges 19:17; Judges 19:20, and containing 700 "chosen men," Judges 20:15, probably the same whose skill as slingers is preserved in the next verse.

In many particulars, Gibeah agrees very closely with Tuleil-el-Ful, a conspicuous eminence just four mlles north of Jerusalem, to the right of the road. We next meet with Glbeah of Benjamin, during the Philistine wars of Saul and Jonathan. 1 Samuel 13:15-16. It now bears its full title. As "Gibeah of Benjamin," this place is referred to in 2 Samuel 23:29, (compare 1 Chronicles 11:31, and as "Gibeah," it is mentioned by Hosea, Hosea 5:8; Hosea 9:9; Hosea 10:9, but it does not again appear in the history. It is, however, almost without doubt identical with Gibeah, 3.

3. Gibeah of Saul. This is not mentioned as Saul's city, till after his anointing, 1 Samuel 10:26, when is said to have gone "home" to Gibeah. In the subsequent narrative, the town bears its full name. 1 Samuel 11:4.

4. Gibeah in Kirjath-jearim was no doubt a hill in that city, and the place in which the Ark remained, from the time of its return by the Philistines, till its removal by David. 2 Samuel 6:3-4. Compare 1 Samuel 7:1-2.

5. Gibeah in the field, named only in Judges 20:31, as the place to which one of the "highways" led from Gibeah of Benjamin. It is probably the same as Geba. The "meadows of Gaba" (Authorized Version, Gibeah), Judges 20:33, have no connection with the "field," the Hebrew word being entirely different.