Gibeah of Saul
גִּבְעַת שָׁאוּל
Where was biblical Gibeah of Saul? At Tell el-Ful, northern Jerusalem. I mark it probable.
Saul went home to this hilltop as Israel's first king. From here he rallied the tribes to rescue Jabesh Gilead.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tell el-Ful, northern Jerusalem
- How sure
- Probable The best case we have, with real alternatives.
- Other names
- Gibeah of Benjamin, Gibeath-Shaul, Gibeah of God, Gabath Saoule, Tell el-Ful
- Location
- 31.8233° N, 35.2308° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Gibeah's story begins darker. A Levite traveling north with his concubine passed Jebus, the Jerusalem of the day, late in the afternoon. He would not stay in a foreign town, so he pushed on to Gibeah and reached it at sunset. What the men of Gibeah did to the woman that night led all Israel into war against Benjamin.
Givah means hill, and the geography and the ancient testimony carry the case. Tell el-Ful is a high summit on the ancient ridge road north of Jerusalem. A traveler leaving Jebus late in the day could reach it by sunset, with Ramah still further north, just as the Book of Judges describes. Josephus puts Gabath Saoule about 30 stadia north of Jerusalem, which matches the tell. And Isaiah's Assyrian march passes through "Gibeah of Saul" between Ramah and Anatot.
Excavators found a village from the time of the Judges here, and then a fortress, which they credited to Saul. But the digs were partial and the remains are poor. Some archaeologists doubt Saul ever had a fortress here. There is no inscription. Most scholars still accept the site, on the strength of the road and the distances.
Some once thought Gibeah and Geba were the same place. Most now treat Geba as a separate town at Jaba.
Visiting today
Tell el-Ful is a hilltop in northern Jerusalem, topped by the concrete shell of a palace begun for King Hussein of Jordan in the 1960s and never finished. The ancient remains are barely visible, but the view over Benjamin is excellent.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Gibeah on the interactive map →
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- Nob 1 km south
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- Anathoth 3 km southeast
- Nephtoah 4 km southwest
- Gibeon 5 km northwest
- Jerusalem 5 km south