Gibbethon
GIBBETHON
GIBBETHON (Heb. גִּבְתוֹן).
(1) Town in the territory of Dan, mentioned with Eltekeh and Baalath (Josh. 19:44). It is also listed as a levitical city of the Kohathite family (ibid. 21:23) and was thus apparently a Davidic administrative center (its name is absent in the parallel text of levitical cities in i Chron. 6). Gibbethon appears twice in the Book of Kings as a Philistine city that was besieged by Nadab and "all Israel" and again by Elah; both sieges, however, were interrupted by revolutions in the besieging armies and were unsuccessful (i Kings 15:27; 16:15). It may also be included in the list of cities captured by Thutmose iii in c. 1469 b.c.e. (no. 103). Gibbethon is generally identified with Tel al-Malāt (now called Tell Gibbethon), southwest of Gezer, a prominent mound containing pottery from the Chalcolithic to the Arabic periods.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
(2) Moshav Gibbethon (Givton) in central Israel, near *Reḥovot, affiliated with Tenu'at ha-Moshavim, was founded in 1933 by settlers from Eastern Europe as one of the villages of the "Thousand Families Settlement Scheme." Citriculture constitutes a prominent farm branch. Modern Gibbethon does not seem to lie on the ancient site. In the mid-1990s, the population was approximately 215, while in the end of 2002 it grew to number 290 residents.
[Efraim Orni]
bibliography:
Von Rad, in: pjb, 29 (1933), 30ff., 35; em, 1 (1963), 354.