Jebusites
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary [1]
The Jebusites were descended from Canaan, the grandson of Noah, and were one of the native peoples of the land of Canaan. They lived in the central highlands, where their chief centre was Jerusalem, earlier known as Jebus (Genesis 10:15-16; Genesis 15:18-21; Exodus 3:8; Numbers 13:29; Joshua 11:3; Joshua 15:63; Joshua 18:28). Jerusalem’s position on a well fortified hill made the city extremely difficult to conquer (see JERUSALEM). Although Jerusalem fell at first to Joshua’s conquering Israelites, the Jebusites soon retook it, and they kept control of it till the time of David (Judges 1:8; Judges 1:21; Judges 19:10-11).
Jerusalem was so difficult to capture that the Jebusites confidently claimed that even the blind and crippled could beat off an attack. But David’s men gained entrance through a tunnel used to carry water from a spring outside the city walls. They then launched a surprise attack and took the city (2 Samuel 5:6-10).
In the years that followed, the Jebusites became absorbed into the Israelite population of Jerusalem. Eventually they disappeared as a distinct race.
Morrish Bible Dictionary [2]
A race of people, descendants of Canaan, son of Ham, living in Palestine when the land was promised to Abraham. Genesis 10:16; Genesis 15:21 . They were described by the spies as dwellers in the mountains. Numbers 13:29 . When the kings of the land combined against Gibeon for having made alliance with Israel, the Jebusites, who were apparently living in Jerusalem, were among them. They were defeated with great slaughter, and the king of Jerusalem was slain. Joshua 10:1-23 . They joined in another confederacy (Joshua 11:3 ) and were again defeated, but they were not rooted out of the land; and Israel mingled with them in marriage. Judges 1:21; Judges 3:5 .
When David came to Jerusalem he was defied by the Jebusite inhabitants, who apparently held it by a strong fort; but 'David took the stronghold of Zion,' and called it the city of David. Some of the Jebusites were however in Jerusalem long after; for it was the threshing floor of Araunah, or Ornan, the Jebusite, that David bought at the time of the plague. 2 Samuel 5:6,8;
2 Samuel 24:16,18 .
Holman Bible Dictionary [3]
Genesis 10:1
In Joshua 10:1 , the king of Jerusalem, Adonizedek, is considered one of the five Amorite kings who fought against Joshua.
In the time of the Judges, Jerusalem was attacked and burned by the men of Judah (Judges 1:8 ), but the Jebusites were not expelled. Centuries later David captured the city and made it his capital. David purchased a stone threshing-floor from a Jebusite named Araunah (2 Samuel 24:16-24 ), and this later became the site of Solomon's Temple. The remnants of the Jebusites became bondservants during Solomon's reign (1 Kings 9:20-21 ). Jebusite names appear to be Hurrian rather than Semitic. See Jerusalem .
M. Stephen Davis
Easton's Bible Dictionary [4]
Genesis 10:1615:21Exodus 3:8,1713:5Joshua 10:1,232 Samuel 24:16-251 Chronicles 21:24,25
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary [5]
See Canaanites .
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature [6]
Jeb´usites, one of the most powerful of the nations of Canaan, who settled about Mount Moriah, where they built Jerusalem, and called it Jebus, after the name of their founder . Although they were defeated with much slaughter, and Adonizedek, their king, slain by Joshua (Joshua 10), they were not wholly subdued, were able to retain their city till after his death , and were not entirely dispossessed of it till the time of David (2 Samuel 5). By that time the inveteracy of the enmity between the Hebrews and such of the original inhabitants as remained in the land had much abated, and the rights of private property were respected by the conquerors. This we discover from the fact that the site on which the Temple afterwards stood belonged to a Jebusite, named Araunah, from whom it was purchased by King David, who declined to accept it as a free gift from the owner (2 Samuel 24). This is the last we hear of the Jebusites.
