Ibeah
Ibeah [1]
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.
