Gibeah

AI summary: Gibeah stands at the intersection of two very different but equally weighty narratives. In Judges it is the city associated with the outrage against the Levite's concubine, a crisis that exposes the moral collapse of the period and leads to devastating conflict with the tribe of Benjamin. In Samuel it becomes closely linked with Saul, giving Gibeah a second identity as the place from which Israel's first king rises and rules. Because of those stories, Gibeah carries the memory of both social breakdown and royal beginnings. The cross references present it as a Benjaminite stronghold whose name is tied to some of the most unsettling and formative episodes in early Israel.¹

A hill or hill-town, “of Benjamin” (1 Sam. 13:15), better known as “Gibeah of Saul” (11:4; Isa. 10:29). It was here that the terrible outrage was committed on the Levite’s concubine which led to the almost utter extirpation of the tribe of Benjamin (Judg. 19; 20), only six hundred men surviving after a succession of disastrous battles. This was the birthplace of Saul, and continued to be his residence after he became king (1 Sam. 10:26; 11:4; 15:34). It was reckoned among the ancient sanctuaries of Palestine (10:26; 15:34; 23:19; 26:1; 2 Sam. 21:6-10), and hence it is called “Gibeah of God” (1 Sam. 10:5, R.V. marg.). It has been identified with the modern Tell el-Ful (i.e., “hill of the bean”), about 3 miles north of Jerusalem. ³