Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
Inhabitants of Gibeon
(2 Sam. 21:1-9).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
The people of Gibeon and perhaps of the three confederate cities—Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim (Josh. 9:17). They were Hivites, and “mighty” men. Having deceived Joshua into making a treaty with them, they were made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of God (Josh. 9:23). Saul, upon an occasion not recorded, had slain some of the Gibeonites, and it apparently had been passed over and forgotten; but God could not allow the oath of His people to be violated; He therefore brought a famine on the land. On David inquiring of the Lord, it was revealed that the famine was because of the slaying of the Gibeonites. They were appealed to, and reparation offered them. They claimed that as it was Saul who had sought to destroy them from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, seven of his descendants should be given to them. These they hanged in the hill before the Lord, and God was entreated for the land (2 Sam. 21:1-14). In this passage the Gibeonites are called “Amorites,” a common designation of the Canaanites, which does not clash with their being called Hivites in Joshua 9:7. Ismaiah, one of David’s thirty mighty men, was a Gibeonite (1 Chron. 12:4). Some of them returned from exile and helped to build the wall of Jerusalem (Neh. 3:7; Neh. 7:25).
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
Transliteration:
Gib`oniy
Meaning:
patrial from 1391; a Gibonite, or inhabitant of Gibon
Jackson’s Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names:
gentilic of Gibeon
Potts’ Bible Proper Names:
Inhabitants of Gibeon, 2 Sam. 21:1.
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Joshua 9:21. Let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water.
This was a degradation that must have been greatly felt by the Gibeonites, since it compelled them to relinquish the duties of soldiers, and take upon themselves menial services usually performed by women.
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