GEBA

• Name	GEBA
  _UID	4F11E0C6F2A4D2478E9783A34644957796AB
  Death	Yes, date unknown
  Notes	Place name meaning, hill. Geba was given Benjamin (Josh 18:24) but set aside for the Levites (Josh 21:17). This is evidently the base camp for Saul and Jonathan in their fight with the Philistines (1 Sam 13:16-14:18), though the Hebrew texts and modern translations confuse Geba and Gibeah here. King Asa of Judah (910-869 B.C.) strengthened the city (1 Kin 15:22). In the days of King Josiah (640-609 B.C.) Geba apparently represented the northern border of Judah as opposed to the southern border in Beersheba (2 Kin 23:8). Isaiah described the ominous march of the Assyrian army coming through Geba on its way to Jerusalem (Isa 10:29). For Zechariah (Zech 14:10), Geba represented the northern border of a Judah to be flattened out into a plain dominated by God ruling on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. At some period Geba’s inhabitants were forced to move to Manahath (1 Chr 8:6), perhaps when the tribe of Benjamin first settled there or during the Exile. Exiles returned to Geba under Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:26). Some citizens of Geba lived in Michmash and other cities in Nehemiah’s day, unless the Hebrew text is read differently to mean they lived in Geba as well as the other towns (Neh 11:31). Levite singers lived there (Neh 12:29). Geba is variously located, some scholars going so far as to locate a southern Geba of Benjamin at Jeba across the wadi Suweinit from Michmash, about five and a half miles north of Jerusalem, and a northern Geba (Josh 18:24) at khirbet et-Tell, seven miles north of Bethel. At neither of these places has archaeology yet shown evidence to correlate with the biblical materials. geba (12) Josh 21:16-17 (2), 1 Sam 13:3, 2 Sam 5:25, 1 Kin 15:22, 2 Kin 23:8, 1 Chr 6:60, 1 Chr 8:6, 2 Chr 16:6, Neh 11:31, Isa 10:29 (2), Zech 14:10 gaba (3) Josh 18:24, Ezra 2:26, Neh 7:30
  Person ID	I1906	z-Bible Genealogy
  Last Modified	24 Dec 2007