the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:3-27). The Gibeonites demanded blood for the
wrong that had been done to them, and accordingly David gave up to them
the two sons of Rizpah (q.v.) and the five sons of Michal, and these the
Gibeonites took and hanged or crucified “in the hill before the Lord” (2
Samuel 21:9); and there the bodies hung for six months (21:10), and all the
while Rizpah watched over the blackening corpses and “suffered neither
the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by
night.” David afterwards removed the bones of Saul and Jonathan at
Jabeshgilead (21:12, 13).
Here, “at the great stone,” Amasa was put to death by Joab (2 Samuel
20:5-10). To the altar of burnt-offering which was at Gibeon, Joab (1
Kings 2:28-34), who had taken the side of Adonijah, fled for sanctuary in
the beginning of Solomon’s reign, and was there also slain by the hand of
Benaiah.
Soon after he came to the throne, Solomon paid a visit of state to Gibeon,
there to offer sacrifices (1 Kings 3:4; 2 Chronicles 1:3). On this occasion
the Lord appeared to him in a memorable dream, recorded in 1 Kings
3:5-15; 2 Chronicles 1:7-12. When the temple was built “all the men of
Israel assembled themselves” to king Solomon, and brought up from
Gibeon the tabernacle and “all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle”
to Jerusalem, where they remained till they were carried away by
Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:13).
- GIDEON called also Jerubbaal (Judges 6:29, 32), was the first of the
judges whose history is circumstantially narrated (Judges 6-8). His calling
is the commencement of the second period in the history of the judges.
After the victory gained by Deborah and Barak over Jabin, Israel once
more sank into idolatry, and the Midianites (q.v.) and Amalekites, with
other “children of the east,” crossed the Jordan each year for seven
successive years for the purpose of plundering and desolating the land.
Gideon received a direct call from God to undertake the task of delivering
the land from these warlike invaders. He was of the family of Abiezer
(Joshua 17:2; 1 Chronicles 7:18), and of the little township of Ophrah
(Judges 6:11). First, with ten of his servants, he overthrew the altars of
Baal and cut down the asherah which was upon it, and then blew the
trumpet of alarm, and the people flocked to his standard on the crest of
Mount Gilboa to the number of twenty-two thousand men. These were,
however, reduced to only three hundred. These, strangely armed with