Gibeah ("Hill"):

By: Emil G. Hirsch , Frants Buhl

The name of several cities situated on hills. The difficulty of keeping these distinct is increased by the fact that sometimes "Geba" is used for "Gibeah," and vice versa ( see Geba ). In one passage, however, Isa. x. 29, "Geba" is distinguished from the "Gibeah of Saul," which must have been near Ramah; according to Josephus ("Ant." v. 2, § 8; "B. J." v. 2, § 1), it was situated about thirty furlongs from Jerusalem, and is by most scholars rightly identified with Tulail al-Ful. This agrees with Josh. xviii. 24, 28, which enumerates both Geba ("Gaba") and Gibeah ("Gibeath") among the cities of Benjamin. In the following passages "Gibeah" may with certainty be identified with the present Jeba': Judges xx. 33;I Sam. xiii. 16, xiv. 5. It is probable, moreover, that the references in I Kings xv. 22; II Kings xxiii. 8; II Chron. xvi. 6; Zech. xiv. 10 are to Geba. Doubtless the same city is also referred to under the name "Gibeah" in I Sam. xiii. 15; xiv. 2, 16; and perhaps in xiii. 2.

The Gibeah which is identical with Tulail al-Ful is met with as Saul's Gibeah in I Sam. x. 26, xi. 4, xv. 34, xxii. 6, and as Benjamin's Gibeah in Judges xix. 12-16, xx. 4 et seq. , and in Hosea v. 8, ix. 9, x. 9. Geba is mentioned in one passage (Judges xx. 10); here again Gibeah (Tulail al-Ful) may be intended; whereas its identification with the "hill ["gibeah"] of God," I Sam. x. 5 (with which the Geba in I Sam. xiii. 3 must coincide), is very doubtful (comp. Budde's commentary ad loc. ). Several passages in which one or the other name occurs are also doubtful, viz., "Geba" in Josh. xxi. 17; I Chron. vi. 45, viii. 6; Ezra ii. 26; Neh. vii. 30, xi. 31, xii. 29, and "Gibeah" in II Sam. xxiii. 29; I Chron. xi. 31, xii. 3; II Chron. xiii. 2. In some passages "Gibeah" or "Geba" occurs incorrectly for "Gibeon," e.g. , Judges xx. 31; II Sam. v. 25, xxi. 6.