GIBEAH (11M ; Sept. rapaci and l'apacbv ; also written v= in Judg. xx. to, 33). There were several cities of this name, which can only be dis tinguished by a specific title added, or by the scope of the context. The word signifies a hill,' and is always descriptive of the site.
1. Gzbeah of Saul ; also called Gibeah of Ben jamin. The attention required to distinguish this city from two others in the territories of the same tribe, whose names are nearly similar, has already been pointed out [GERA]. During the time of the Judges, when the country was almost in a state of anarchy (Judg. xix. 1), Gibeah became the scene of one of the most abominable crimes, and one of the most awful trapedies, recorded in Jewish history. The stoty of Se unfortunate Levite, the siege and destruction of Gibeah, and the almost total anni hilation of the tribe of Benjamin, are well known (xix.-xxi.) The city soon rose again from its ashes, and had the honour of giving Israel its first king. It was the native place of Saul (I Sam. x. 26 ; xi. 4), and the seat of his government during the greater part of his reign (xiv. 2 ; xxii. 6 -; xxiii. 19) ; hence its appellation Gibeah of Saul' (xv. 34). It was in Gibeah the Amorites of Gibcon hanged the seven descendants of Saul in revenge for the massacre of their brethren. The city was then the scene of that touching exhibition of maternal love and devotion, when Rizpah, the mother of two of the victims, took sackcloth and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest, until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest upon them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night' (2 Sam. xxi.) The last reference to Gibeah in the Bible is by Isaiah in his vision of the approach of the Assyrian army to Jerusalem (x. 29). The city appears to have lost its place and power at a very early period. Josephus men tions it as 'a village named Gabath-Saa, which signifies Saul's hill,' distant from Jerusalem about thirty furlongs' (Bell. v. 2. I). Jerome speaks of it as usque ad salmi diruta' (opp., ed. Migne, i. 883). From that period, until discovered by-Dr. Robinson, its very site remained unnoticed, if not unknown.
Four miles north of Jerusalem stands a bare conical hill called Tuleil el- R21 (` the little hill of Beans '). It is made conspicuous over the whole country by a heap of ancient ruins forming a knob upon its summit. The view from it is wide and wild, embracing the rugged table-land lying north of Jemsalem, and the whole eastem slopes ot Benjamin and Judah. Upon this hill stood Gibeah. The argt, intents by which Dr. Robinson established this fact are given at length in his Biblical Re searches (i. 577, seq.), and need not be repeated here. The ancient road from Jerusalem to Bethel and Shechem passes close along its western base, and Ramah is in full view on another hill two miles farther north (Handbook for S. and P., 325).
The narrative of the Levites journey is thus made remarkably graphic. He left b'ethlehem in the afternoon to go home to Mount Ephraim. Two hours' tmvel (six miles) brought him alongside Jerusalem. Evening was now approaching. His servant advised him to lodge in Jebus ; but he de clined to stop with strangers, and said he would pass on to Gibeah or Ramah. The sun went down upon them when they were by Gibeah,' and they resolved to pass the night there (Judg. xix.) The site of Gibeah was well adapted to form the capital of Israel during the troublous times of Saul, when the whole counny was overrun by the hostile bands of the Philistines. It was naturally strong; it was on the very crest of the mountain range, and it commanded a wide view, so that Saul's watch men could give timely notice of the approach of the enemy.
2. Gibeah of yiedali. This city is only men tioned in Josh. xv. 57, and from the context we conclude that it lay north-west of Hebron. We may then identify it with the little village of situated on an isolated hill in the midst of Wady Muslim Dr. Robinson suggests that it may be the Gabatluz mentioned by Eusebius•as twelve miles from Eleutheropolis (Bib. Rev ii. 6; Onomast., s.v.); it is more probably that which Jerome refers to as near Bethlehem, in the tribe of Judah (Ono mast., s. v. Gabatlion).
3. Another Gibeah, in the tribe of Benjamin, is spoken of. In Josh. xviii. 28, it is joined in the enumeration with Kirjath ; and in 2 Sam. vi. 3 we read, They set up the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah (j/J1, Geba. ; Sept. PaPacf:v). The same place is referred to in I Sam. vii. r, where it is said the men of Kirjath-jearim broug,ht the ark from Bethshcmesh, and placed it in the house of Abinadab, Gibcah 03man, A. V. in the hill').
The context shews that this Gibeah must have been so close to Kirjath-jearim as to be reckoned part of it (cf., ver. 3 ; 2 Chron. i. 4). Kirjath-jearim stood on the slope of a hill, and probably on the summit there may have been a suburb, or a small detached village called from its position Gibeah.
Gibeah of Phinehas. In Josh. xxiv. 33 we read that Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died ; and they buried him in Gibeah of Phhtehas (orlyz rwmn, A. V. In the hill that pertaineth to Phinehas') his son, which was given hitn in Mount Ephraim.' The Sept. (cod. Alex.) renders it rightly iv rapab.0