Gibeon
a city of ancient Palestine on a hill among the mountains of Benjamin, 5 miles N. W. of Jerusalem. At the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites under Joshua, it was inhabited by Hivites. By a clever stratagem the Gibeonites insured the alliance and protection of the invaders, but, their deceit being afterward found out, they were reduced to a condition of servitude, being made "hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation." When the five kings of the Amorites besieged Gibeon for having entered into a traitorous compact with the common enemy of all the Canaanites, Joshua hastened to its help, and overthrew the besiegers with great slaughter. It was there that Joshua, in the words quoted from the book of Jashar (Josh. x: 12), commanded the sun to stand still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon. great