GI'BEON (Heb. signifies " belonging to a hill "), a celebrated city of ancient Palestine, about 5 m. n.w. of Jerusalem. At the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites under Joshua, it was inhabited by the Hivites. By a clever stratagem, the Gibeonites insured the alliance and protection of the invaders, and so escaped the fate of Jericho and Ai; but their deceit being afterwards found out, they were reduced to a condition of servi tude, being appointed " hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation." When the five kings of the Amorites besieged Gibeon, on the ground of its having entered into a traitorous compact with the common enemy of all the Canaanites, Joshua hastened to its help, and overthrew the besiegers with great slaughter. The battle was attended, we are informed, with supernatural phenomena—viz., the standing still of the sun upon Gibson, and of the moon in the valley of Ajalon; but as the passage where this occurs (Joshua x. 13) is immediately followed by these words: " Is not this written in the book of Jasher?" it has been thought that it may perhaps be only an extract from that collection of national songs; and the fact of its forming two hemistichs. while the
rest of the narrative is in prose, certainly does not weaken the probability of this theory. If such a supposition be adopted, the necessity for accepting the statement literally is done away with, and the supposed miracle is resolved into a hyperbole of 'oriental poetry. The city of Gibeon is mentioned various times in the history of David and his captains; but its sanctity, in the eyes of the Jews, arose from the circumstance of it—or the hill near it—having been for a time the seat of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brazen altar of burnt-offering. It was at the horns of this altar that the ruthless Joab was slain by Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada; and here Solomon, in the beginning of his reign, with magnificent ceremony sacrificed a thousand burnt-offerings.