Gibeah

Gib'eah (Heb. Gibah', גִּבַ ה, a hill, as the word is sometimes rendered; likewise the Sept., which usually has Γαβαά, but in Joshua 18 Γαβαάθ; Josephus Γαβαθή, Ant. 6:4, 6), the name of three cities, all doubtless situated on hills. The term is derived, according to Geseneius (Thes. pages 259, 260), from a root, גָּכִ , nignifying to be round or humped (compare the Latin gibbus, Eng. gibbous; the Arabic jebel, a mountain, and the German gipfel). It is employed in the Heb. Bible to denote a "hill," that is, an eminence of less considerable height and extent than a "mountain," the term for which is הִר, har. For the distinction between the two terms, see Ps 148:9; Pr 8:25; Isa 2:2; Isa 40:4, etc. In the historical books gibeah is commonly applied to the hald, rounded hells of Central Palestine, especially in the neighborhood of Jerusalem (Stanley, Palest. App. § 25). There is no lack of the corresponsding name among the villages of Central Palestine. Several of these are merely mentioned as appellatives:

(1.) The "bill of the foreskins" (Jos 5:3), between the Jordan and Jericho; it derives its name from the circumcision which took place there, and the vicinity seems afterwards to heave received the name of GILGAL (q.v.).

(2.) "The hill" of Kiajath-jearim, a place in which the ark remained from the time of its return by the Philistines till its removal by David (2Sa 6:3-4; comp. 1Sa 7:1-2). See KIRJATH-JEARIM.