Gibeon

Gibeon, a city of ancient Palestine, a place of great natural strength, on a hill in a fertile plain among the mountains of Benjamin, 5 miles NW. of Jerusalem. At the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites under Joshua, it was inhabited by Hivites. By a clever stratagem the Gibeonites ensured the alliance and protection of the invaders, but, their deceit being afterwards found out, they were reduced to a condition of servitude, being made 'hevers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation.' When the five kings of the Amorites besieged Gibeon for having entered into a traitorous compact with the common enemy of all the Canaanites, Joshua hastened to its help, and overthrew the besiegers with great slaughter. It was there that Joshua, in the words quoted from the book of Jashar (Joshua, x. 12), commanded 'the sun to stand still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon.' Gibeon is often mentioned in the Old Testament; and on its site there still stands a village with an old church.