Gibeah (; ''Gīḇəʿā''; ''Gīḇəʿaṯ'') is the name of three places mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Benjamin Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...

, Judah, and

Ephraim Ephraim (; , in pausa: ''ʾEp̄rāyīm'') was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph ben Jacob and Asenath, as well as the adopted son of his biological grandfather Jacob, making him the progenitor of the Tribe of Ephrai ...

respectively.Dictionary - AlHaTorah.org
/ref> Gibeah of Benjamin, also Gibeah of Saul, is the most commonly mentioned of the places. In the

Book of Judges The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom in the ...

, it is the main setting to the story of the Benjaminite War. Later, in the

Book of Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...

, it is mentioned as the first capital of the united Kingdom of Israel under king

Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh c ...

. During the

First Jewish–Roman War The First Jewish–Roman War (66–74 CE), also known as the Great Jewish Revolt, the First Jewish Revolt, the War of Destruction, or the Jewish War, was the first of three major Jewish rebellions against the Roman Empire. Fought in the prov ...

Titus Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September AD 81) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, becoming the first Roman emperor ever to succeed h ...

established a camp nearby in the "Valley of Thorns", before proceeding to besiege Jerusalem. Gibeah of Benjamin is generally identified with ''Tell el-Fūl'' in northern

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Etymology

Gibeah is a Hebrew word meaning "hill" ().

Gibeah of Benjamin

Biblical narrative

Gibeah in the tribe of Benjamin was the location of the infamous rape of the

Levite's concubine The episode of the Levite's concubine, also known as the Benjamite War, in Judges 19–21 concerns a Levite from Ephraim and his concubine. They travel through the Benjamite city of Gibeah and are assailed by a mob, who wish to gang-rape the L ...

, and the resulting Battle of Gibeah (). Israel’s first king, King

, reigned here for 22 years (). According to PEF explorer C.R. Conder, the name may have applied to a district as well as to a town, since the neighboring town of Ramah is said to have been "in Gibeah." It is mentioned several times in later prophetic writings. Also known as Gibeat (). The name "Gibeah of God" (, ''Give'at-elohim'') may also refer to this Gibeah. Perhaps to avoid confusion with other places named Gibeah, this location is also called "Gibeah of Benjamin" (, ''Give'at Binyamin'') and "Gibeah of Saul" (, ''Give'at Sha'ul''). The latter name is also used by the modern neighborhood

Givat Shaul Givat Shaul (, lit. (''Saul's Hill''); ) is a neighborhood in West Jerusalem. The neighborhood is located at the western entrance to the city, east of the neighborhood of Har Nof and north of Kiryat Moshe. Givat Shaul stands 820 meters above sea ...

, which however is located in a different location.

In extra-biblical sources

According to

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, the 10th Roman Legion led by

camped in the "Valley of Thorns" (''Acanthon Aulon'') near ''Gabaothsaul'' before their siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. This valley is identified with the contemporary Wâdi Beit Hanina.

Identification with Tell el-Ful

This Gibeah is generally identified with Tell el-Fūl (), a hill in the northern reaches of modern

, on the outskirts of the

Pisgat Ze'ev Pisgat Ze'ev (, lit. ''Ze'ev's Peak'') is an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem and the largest residential neighborhood in Jerusalem with a population of over 50,000. Pisgat Ze'ev was established by Israel as one of the city's five Ring Neig ...

and

Shuafat Shuafat (), also ''Shu'fat'' and ''Sha'fat'', is a mostly Palestinian Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, forming part of north-eastern Jerusalem. Located on the old Jerusalem–Ramallah road about three miles north of the Old City, Shu'fat ...

neighborhoods. This location is north of ancient Jerusalem, along the watershed ridge at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. According to

, Gabaothsaul was located about 30 '' stadia'' north of Jerusalem, which would have roughly corresponded with the location of ''Tell el-Fūl''.

, ''

The Jewish War ''The Jewish War'' is a work of Jewish history written by Josephus, a first-century Roman-Jewish historian. It has been described by the biblical historian Steve Mason as "perhaps the most influential non-biblical text of Western history". ...

'' 5.2.1.
5.47
King

Hussein of Jordan Hussein bin Talal (14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 1952 until Death and state funeral of King Hussein, his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemites, Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hu ...

began construction on a royal palace at Tell el-Ful, but construction was halted when the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

broke out. Since Israel won the war, King Hussein's palace was never finished and now all that remains is the skeleton of the building.Alternatively, Gibeah may have been where Jaba' now stands ( north of Jerusalem), a view held by biblical scholar Edward Robinson and C. Umhau Wolf. However, Jaba is now widely identified with the biblical city of Geba.

Israel Finkelstein Israel Finkelstein (; born March 29, 1949) is an Israelis, Israeli archaeologist, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and the head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. Finkelstein is active in the a ...

also challenged the identification with ''Tell el-Fūl''.

Archaeology

Tell el-Ful was first excavated in 1868 by

Charles Warren Sir Charles Warren (7 February 1840 – 21 January 1927) was a British Army officer of the Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of the Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of the Temple Mount. Much of his military ...

, while C.R. Conder described the remains in 1874.

William F. Albright William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891 – September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars ...

led his first excavation from 1922 to 1923, and returned for a second season in 1923. His work was published in 1960. P.W. Lapp conducted a six-week salvage excavation in 1964. According to Kenneth Kitchen, "Upon this strategic point was found an Iron I occupation replaced (at an interval) by a fortress ("I"), subsequently refurbished ("II"), and then later in disuse. The oldest level may reflect the Gibeah of . The excavations by Albright, checked by Lapp, would favor the view that it was Saul who built the first fortress, later repaired by him or David. The first fort (quadrangular) had at least one rectangular corner-tower at its southwest angle; it may have had others at the other corners, but no traces were detected." The site was once more inhabited around the start of the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

, and its wall was once more in service. The citadel underwent repairs as well in the second century BCE. At the end of the second century BCE, the site was abandoned.

Gibeah of Judah and Ephraim

Gibeah of Judah was a city in the tribal inheritance of Judah (); cities mentioned in nearby verses included

Zanoah Zanoah () is a moshav in central Israel. Located adjacent to Beit Shemesh, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In it had a population of . Modern history The village was established in 1950 by immigrants from Yemen, ...

and

Halhul Halhul (, transliteration: ''Ḥalḥūl'') is a Palestinian city located in the southern part of the West Bank, north of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate of Palestine. The town, bordered by Sa'ir and al-Shuyukh to the east, Beit Ummar and ...

. C. R. Conder identifies this Gibeah with

Jab'a Jab'a () is a Palestinian village in the central West Bank, located 17 kilometers north of Hebron and 15 kilometers southwest of Bethlehem. Located three kilometers east of the Green Line, it is located in the Seam Zone, surrounded by the Isra ...

. H.B. Tristram, ''Bible Places: or, The Topography of the Holy Land: a Succinct Account of All the Places, Rivers, and Mountains…'', London 1897, p
83
Conder & Kitchener, SWP (vol. 3), London 1883, p. 53. Gibeah of Ephraim was a city in the tribal inheritance of Ephraim, "the Gibeah of

Phinehas According to the Hebrew Bible, Phinehas (also spelled Phineas, ; , ''Phinees'', ) was a priest during the Exodus. The grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar, the High Priests (), he distinguished himself as a youth at Shittim with his zeal again ...

" ();

Eleazar Eleazar (; ) or Elazar was a priest in the Hebrew Bible, the second High Priest, succeeding his father Aaron after he died. He was a nephew of Moses. Biblical narrative Eleazar played a number of roles during the course of the Exodus, from ...

, the son of

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

, was buried here. Possibly

Awarta Awarta () is a Palestinian town located southeast of Nablus, in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 7,054 inhabitants in 2017. Awarta's built-up area consists of and it ...