Falling to the tribe of Benjamin in the division of the land,[424] Gibeon afterward became a Levitical city.[425] Subsequently to the destruction of Nob by Saul, it was the seat of the tabernacle till the completion of the Temple.[426] On the eastern side of the hill is a large well of delicious water. Springing up in a cave excavated in the solid rock, the water was originally conducted to a reservoir below, which measures 120 feet in length and 100 in breadth. Formerly it was called the “Pool of Gibeon,” and around its peaceful waters the rival armies of Israel and Judah met in battle. It was here that Abner challenged Joab to terminate the strife by a gladiatorial fight between twenty-four chosen men――twelve representing David, and twelve representing Ishbosheth. But so equal were the champions in skill and power, “that they caught every man his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow’s side, so they fell down together.”[427] The death of all the combatants leaving the issue of the contest undecided, the two armies sprang to the fight on the adjoining plain, and, after a sore battle, Abner was defeated, and the claims of David to the kingdom of all Israel were confirmed by a decisive victory.[428] Thirty-three years after, by the “great stone which is in Gibeon,” in the same highway now trodden by the feet of careless pilgrims, “Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him,” and, with a sword in the other, treacherously slew his cousin.[429]
But the glory of Gibeon is the dream and prayer of Solomon. Sanctifying the morning of a long and eventful reign by acts of devotion, he came from Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Upon a great altar which he had reared he offered a thousand burnt sacrifices, and that night in a dream he communed with the God of his fathers, and asking wisdom to govern his kingdom rather than wealth and honor, he received a wise and understanding heart.[430]
A mile to the south, beyond a green and lovely plain, is Mizpeh――“The Look-out”――one of the oldest watch-towers in Southern Palestine. With it stand connected many of the most thrilling events in Jewish history. Chosen in the infancy of the nation for the advantages it afforded as a point of observation in times of war, it subsequently became the national rendezvous, where the tribes were accustomed to meet to worship Jehovah, to make war, to conclude peace, and elect a king. Justly aggrieved at the insult offered the whole country by the citizens of Gibeah in refusing to surrender the young men who had committed the horrid crime on the person of the Levite’s concubine, the eleven tribes here assembled, and, having vowed never to return to their homes till the inhabitants of Gibeah were punished, they marched forth to that series of battles in which thousands fell, and in which the tribe of Benjamin was well-nigh exterminated.[431] Two hundred and eighty-six years later, Samuel gathered the armies of Israel at Mizpeh to fight against the Philistines, and after their return from the slaughter of the foe he set up a memorial-stone and called it Ebenezer.[432] A quarter of a century thereafter the nation reassembled to choose a king; and here, for the first time in Israel, when the people beheld the majestic form of Saul, the son of Kish, on whom the lot had fallen, their loyal exclamations awakened the echoes of the surrounding hills――“God save the king!”[433] Fortifying it for the protection of his frontier, King Asa removed from Rama the materials with which Baasha had constructed his battlements, and with them built a strong fort. Five centuries after the coronation of Saul, Ishmael, of the royal family of Judah, here surprised and assassinated Gedaliah, the Chaldean governor, who, during the Jewish captivity, resided at Mizpeh.[434]