Bible Meaning: Hill
Strong's Concordance #H1390
Gibeah is the name of a city given to the tribe of Judah as an inheritance in the Promised Land (Joshua 15:57). The tribe of Benjamin was also given a city by the same name that is located a short distance north of Jerusalem (18:28). A hill near Kiriath-jearim was also called Gibeah.
Gibeah in Benjamin is where a Levite's wife was brutally raped and murdered by the city's wicked men (Judges 19 - 20). This heinous act sets off a chain of events that ultimately leads to the tribe almost being wiped off the face of the earth!
This Benjamite city is also the place where Saul, Israel's first God-chosen human king, was born. He continued to live in the city after becoming ruler and made it the country's administrative center (1Samuel 10:26, 15:34, 23:19).
David, after becoming king, wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. He arranged to have it moved from a hill near Kiriath-jearim named Gibeah and transported to his new capital (1Samuel 7:1 - 2, 2Samuel 6:1 - 5). The Ark, however, only made it part of the way due to it not being moved according to God's instructions (Exodus 25:14, Numbers 4:15). It would later be properly carried to Jerusalem (2Samuel 6:13 - 17).
Important verses
Joshua 15:20, 57
This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families . . . Cain, Gibeah, and Timnah: ten cities with their villages.
Joshua 18:21, 28
Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, and Bethhoglah, and the valley of Keziz . . .
And Zelah, Eleph, and Jebusi, which is Jerusalem, Gibeath (Gibeah), and Kirjath: fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.
Judges 20:4 - 5, 9, 34, 36
And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.
And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead . . .
But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up by lot against it . . .
And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them . . .
So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.
1Samuel 10:26
And Saul also went home to Gibeah: and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched.
1Samuel 13:2
Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel: whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in mount Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin: and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent.
2Samuel 6:3
And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drave the new cart.