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GEBA

(Heb. geḇaʿ)

A city identified with the modern village of Jabaʿ (175140), located 10 km. (6.2 mi.) N of Jerusalem near the northern border of the tribe of Benjamin. Its position gave rise to the expression “from Geba to Beer-sheba” as delimiting the greatest extent of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kgs. 23:8).

Geba figures prominently in the early history of the monarchy. The Philistines sent advance camps to the region of Geba and Michmash, where Saul’s son Jonathan defeated them in battle (1 Sam. 10:5; 13:2–14:23). The Judean king Asa fortified Geba and Mizpeh as his northern bulwarks during the civil war with King Baasha of Israel. It was also among the towns settled by those returning from Babylonian Captivity (Ezra 2:26; Neh. 7:30).

Attempts to conflate references to Gibeah with Geba have not been convincing because both biblical and extrabiblical sources clearly distinguish two sites (e.g., Isa. 10:29). Some confusion arose among ancient scribes as a result of the similarity in spelling and meaning between Geba and two other sites in the vicinity, Gibeon (el-Jîb) and Gibeah (Tell el-Fûl) — the Hebrew root for all three words means simply “hill.” For example, the reference to Geba in Judg. 20:20 should be read as Gibeah (as elsewhere in the story of Judg. 19–20), and the rout of the Philistines “from Geba to Gezer” in 2 Sam. 5:25 should be emended to “from Gibeon to Gezer,” following 1 Chr. 14:16.

William M. Schniedewind

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GEBA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)