Gibeonites, The

the people of Gibeon, and perhaps also of the three cities associated with Gibeon, (Joshua 9:17)—Hivites; and who, on the discover of the stratagem by which they had obtained the protection of the Israelites, were condemned to be perpetual bondmen, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the house of God and altar of Jehovah. (Joshua 9:23,27) Saul appears to have broken this covenant, and in a fit of enthusiasm or patriotism to have killed some and devised a general massacre of the rest. (2 Samuel 21:1,2,5) This was expiated many years after by giving up seven men of Saul’s descendants to the Gibeonites, who hung them or crucified them “before Jehovah”—as a kind of sacrifice— in Gibeah, Saul’s own town. ch. (2 Samuel 21:4,6,9)