Gibeah

Biblical Text

Gibeah was a town belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. It appears in Scripture chiefly in three contexts.

• Judges 19–21: A Levite living in the hill country of Ephraim was returning from Bethlehem with his concubine. Passing by Jebus (Jerusalem), a city of foreigners, he chose to lodge at Gibeah instead (Judges 19:11-15). At night the base men of the town surrounded the house of the old man who had taken him in, and the concubine, abused throughout the night, collapsed at the door. The Levite cut her body into twelve pieces and sent them throughout Israel. The tribes assembled and demanded that Benjamin hand over the perpetrators, but Benjamin refused. In the civil war that followed, only six hundred Benjamites survived, having fled to the rock of Rimmon (Judges 20:47). Chapter 21 recounts how wives were obtained for the survivors.
• Books of Samuel: As the hometown and base of Saul, the town is called "Gibeah of Saul" (1 Samuel 11:4; 15:34). After being chosen king, Saul returned home to Gibeah (1 Samuel 10:26), and he remained there during his wars against the Philistines (1 Samuel 13–14). In 2 Samuel 21:6 the Gibeonites ask that seven of Saul's descendants be handed over to be hanged "in Gibeah of Saul."
• Prophetic books: Isaiah 10:29, describing the approach of the Assyrian army, records, "Gibeah of Saul is fled." Hosea says, "They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah" (Hosea 9:9), and "O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah" (Hosea 10:9). These passages recall the events of Judges as a paradigm of Israel's sin.

Background

The Hebrew word gibeah is a common noun meaning "hill." Consequently, other places bear the same name, such as a town in the hill country of Judah (Joshua 15:57).

Gibeah of Benjamin is commonly identified with Tell el-Ful, north of Jerusalem, although some scholars propose other sites. Geba and Gibeon, whose names are similar, are regarded as separate towns. In 1 Samuel 13–14, however, Gibeah and Geba appear in places to be used interchangeably, a matter that scholars debate. Some also identify "the hill of God" in 1 Samuel 10:5 with Gibeah.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The book of Judges closes with the words, "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). The Gibeah incident is read as the culmination of the moral and social disorder of the period of the judges. Interpreters frequently note that Saul, the first king, came from this very town.

The New Testament does not mention Gibeah directly. However, Paul refers in a sermon to "Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin" (Acts 13:21), and he identifies himself as a member of the tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5).

Interpretation and Issues

• Parallels with the Sodom narrative: As interpreters widely observe, Judges 19 closely resembles the account of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) in both structure and wording. The chapter is read as an indictment declaring that an Israelite town had become like Sodom.
• Gaps in the text: The Hebrew text says only that the concubine gave no answer—"But none answered" (Judges 19:28)—and does not state when she died. Some manuscripts of the Septuagint are reported to add that she was dead. In addition, the Levite's report before the assembly (Judges 20:4-5) differs from the narrative of chapter 19; some interpreters regard this discrepancy as self-serving.
• Political readings: Some scholars hold that the narrative portrays Gibeah, Saul's hometown, negatively and contrasts it with Bethlehem, and they interpret this as serving to support the Davidic dynasty. Other scholars are cautious about this interpretation.
• Ethical debates: Feminist theology draws attention to the suffering of the concubine, about which the text is silent. Conservative interpretation holds that Judges records the event not to approve it but to condemn it. Judges 19:22 is also cited in discussions of homosexuality and the church: some read it as grounds for condemning same-sex sexual acts, while others see gang rape and the violation of hospitality toward strangers as its central concern.

In the Korean Church

Sermons on Judges often treat the "Gibeah incident" together with Judges 21:25, presenting it as a warning of how a community that has lost its moral standards collapses.