In my post yesterday about Lachish in the Bible I mentioned The Gibeonite Deception.

Tonight as I was thinking about what to post I remembered an article that my Grandmas has saved in one of her scrapbooks. I had mentioned in my post Biblical Parts to Get Study that she had saved articles about Archaeology.

The article was titled Find Site of Bible’s Gibeon, Where ‘Sun Stood Still’ and was by William G. Weart of the New York Times News Service.

The article was written in 1957 after the 1956 season of excavation at el-Jib. The leader of the expedition was Dr. James B. Pritchard. They were able to positively identify the city as Gibeon based on storage jar handle inscriptions.

Much of the battle where the ‘Sun Stood Still’ would have taken place to the south as the five Amorite kings fled from Gibeon, but the Sun stood still above Gibeon.

Another famous battle also took place at Gibeon.  However, this was at the Pool of Gibeon

The Pool of Gibeon is more than 80 feet deep, 37 feet in diameter and has circular stairs that descend to the 35 feet level. At the time of the article it was not fully excavated as they did not have time to finish before the end of the expedition.

Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.And Joab the son of Zeruiah and the servants of David went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool. And Abner said to Joab, “Let the young men arise and compete before us.” And Joab said, “Let them arise.” Then they arose and passed over by number, twelve for Benjamin and Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. And each caught his opponent by the head and thrust his sword in his opponent’s side, so they fell down together. Therefore that place was called Helkath-hazzurim, which is at Gibeon. And the battle was very fierce that day. And Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David.

II Samuel 2:12-17 ESV

Solomon was at Gibeon when the LORD came to him at night in a dream and granted him the gift of Wisdom.

The text says that he made sacrifices at the high places and I wonder if he might have been at Nebi Samwil which overlooks the city of Gibeon.

This picture was taken from Nebi Samwil. You definitely look down onto the city. From Nebi Samwil you can see the Mediterranean on a clear day. You can also see the old city of Jerusalem.

I wish that I could tell my Grandma about my upcoming trip as I am sure that she would be very excited about it. My grandma is definitely one of the sources of my interest in history and continues to inspire me as I continue research on our family that she started years ago.

Steven