Mount Gilboa
הַר הַגִּלְבֹּעַ
Where is Mount Gilboa? The Gilboa ridge, above the Harod and Jezreel valleys. I mark it certain.
Saul watched his army collapse on these slopes. His three sons fell, Jonathan among them, and the wounded king fell on his own sword.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- The Gilboa ridge, above the Harod and Jezreel valleys
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Har HaGilboa, Hills of Gilboa, Jabal Jalbu', Jabal Fuqqu'a
- Location
- 32.5087° N, 35.3930° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The name survives almost unchanged in the Arabic Jabal Jalbu'. And the geography of Saul's last battle matches exactly. The Philistines camped at Shunem, on the Hill of Moreh. Saul gathered Israel at Gilboa, directly opposite, with the city of Jezreel and its spring at the western end of the ridge.
Now look where the Philistines were headed. The valley runs east under this ridge to Beit She'an, where they later hung Saul's body on the wall. A Philistine army going that way had to pass right under Gilboa. Saul made his stand above their road.
The ridge also overlooks Ein Harod, where Gideon chose his 300. The same slopes saw one of Israel's great victories and one of its worst defeats.
David's lament for Saul and Jonathan turns on the mountain itself. He cursed the hills of Gilboa: let no dew or rain fall on them. Some point to the trees on the ridge, many of them growing slanted and bent, as a sign that David's curse still lies on the mountain.
Visiting today
A road crosses the ridge, with lookouts over the Jezreel Valley, hiking trails and the Gilboa iris reserve, in bloom in late winter. Ma'ayan Harod is at its foot.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Gilboa on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- The Spring of Harod 6 km northwest
- The Spring in Jezreel 8 km northwest
- Jezreel 8 km northwest
- Beth Shean (Beit She'an) 10 km east
- Shunem 12 km northwest
- Endor 15 km north