Raymond L Cox<\/b><\/p>\n
[Raymond L. Cox, a frequent contributor to Bible and Spade, is pastor of the Salem, Oregon Foursquare Church. He has traveled extensively in Bible lands and has written over 1650 articles on biblical and archaeological subjects. In addition, he is the author of four books.]<\/i><\/p>\n
For over 25 centuries the debris of history hid from human view one of the most remarkable landmarks ever to be unearthed by archaeologists in the Holy Land.<\/p>\n
Few people have seen it to this day, except neighboring Arabs in the village of El Jib. Although it was uncovered by excavation almost two decades ago, Gibeon remains definitely off the beaten track of tourism. Hundreds of thousands annually travel to Israel to see the Bible sites, but only a handful venture the few miles north of Jerusalem to visit the pool of Gibeon.<\/p>\n
Here is one of the very few places in the Holy Land where you wouldn\u2019t have to take with a grain of salt a guide\u2019s announcement, \u201cThis is exactly where it happened.\u201d But few guides would know how to take a client to the place where the famous duel between David\u2019s and Saul\u2019s forces resulted in a standoff in about 1000 B.C.<\/p>\n
How much before 1000 B.C. this pool was engineered no one knows for sure. Did it come into being as a consequence of the decree of Joshua that the Gibeonites be condemned for their deceit to servitude as hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation of Israel? (See Joshua 9:27.)<\/p>\n
You know how fear prompted the Gibeonites to stage their great masquerade. The conquests of Jericho and Ai convinced these Canaanites that total destruction awaited them unless they could contrive some shenanigan to trick the Israelites into an alliance. \u201cThey did work wilily,\u201d reports Joshua 9:4\u20136, \u201cand went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old and rent, and bound up; and old shoes clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy. And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country; now therefore make ye a league with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israelites greeted the envoys with suspicion, but not enough. \u201cPeradventure ye dwell among us,\u201d they guessed correctly (Joshua 9:7).<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:2 (Spring 1974) p. 41<\/p>\n
But the Gibeonites brazenly flimflammed the Israelites. \u201cFrom a very far country thy servants are come,\u201d they lied. \u201cThis our bread we took hot for our provision out of our homes on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy. And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and behold they are rent; and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey\u201d (Joshua 9:9, 12\u201313).<\/p>\n
Joshua believed what he saw. The people \u201casked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord\u201d (Joshua 9:14). The Israelites concluded what amounted to a non-aggression pact and a mutual assistance treaty with the deceivers.<\/p>\n
The moment of truth dawned three days later. Israelite forces reached the territory of Gibeon. Joshua reproached the deceivers but \u201csmote them not\u201d because the Israelite leaders had sworn by the Lord unto the Gibeonites. The congregation of Israel, however, murmured against the leaders (cf. Joshua 9:17\u201318). They probably murmured more, a short time later, when their armies had to fight a battle in defense of the Gibeonites when other Canaanites attacked them as turncoats because they had allied with Israel. However, the tremendous victory God gave when Joshua commanded the sun to stand still over Gibeon was sufficient to silence further murmuring. For the most part the Israelites were satisfied with Joshua\u2019s verdict that the Gibeonites hew wood and draw water.<\/p>\n
One of the sources of water from which they drew was most certainly the pool of Gibeon. And if it had not been unearthed, people could not know for certain to this day exactly where Gibeon had been. Prior to the excavation, it was a controversy among archaeologists although most tended to accept El Jib as the site.<\/p>\n
When James B. Pritchard and his archaeological team sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania began digging in their first season in 1957 they had no idea what a wealth of discoveries awaited them. They commenced excavating in a luxuriant tomato field at the top of the tell. Little by little the unexpected landmark emerged, which more than three thousand years earlier had been cut from the solid limestone of the hill. The pool measures 37 feet across and it is 35 feet deep, with a five-foot wide spiral staircase descending from top to bottom.<\/p>\n
In clearing the pool of the rubbish of milleniums, the archaeologists sifted through some 50,000 fragments of pottery without finding a legible letter. Then at the end of the first season, an Arab <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:2 (Spring 1974) p. 42<\/p>\n
The Pool of Gibeon where the men of Abner and Joab fought<\/i><\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\n
pottery washer noticed writing on a jar handle and turned it over to an archaeologist who brought it to James Pritchard, the expedition\u2019s director. \u201cWhat does it say?\u201d Pritchard inquired.<\/p>\n
\u201cGibeon!\u201d joked the assistant. Both laughed with amusement at the imagined \u201cabsurdity.\u201d But glee turned to amazement that evening when it was discovered that \u201cGibeon\u201d was exactly what the fragment of pottery had written upon it! (See Bible and Spade,<\/i> Summer, 1972, pp. 89-90.) The site of the ancient Canaanite city now was definitely established. All arguments were over. El Jib eight miles north of Jerusalem had been proved to be Gibeon.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s really no reason why Gibeon remains \u201cso near, and yet so far\u201d in relationship to the Holy City. When Pritchard first dug there, the roads of access were abominable. Taxi-drivers balked at bouncing their vehicles up the hill. But now a good black-top road reaches right to the approach to Gibeon. I drove out three times on my last visit to Jerusalem. Three times I marvelled at the ancient engineering feat of the Gibeonites. Once I descended to the bottom of the pool via the staircase which commences at the northeast and winds clockwise down along the rim of the pool.<\/p>\n
The stairs don\u2019t stop at the bottom, but I had to because further progress is blocked off, perhaps for safety\u2019s sake. Pritchard <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:2 (Spring 1974) p. 43<\/p>\n
found steps corkscrewing down through the floor of the pool into a tunnel which follows the curve of the rim, reaching a depth of 45 feet beneath the bottom of the pool. \u201cAt the very bottom of the 79 steps there is a reservoir of water, 80 feet below the rock surface of the hill,\u201d reported Pritchard. \u201cThere had been no access to the water that flows into it since the tunnel had been filled in some 2, 600 years earlier. Two jars, dated to about the first part of the sixth century B.C., lay in the water\u2014evidence for the last use that had been made of this water system\u201d (p. 143, Archaeological Discoveries in the Holy Land,<\/i> Bonanza Books, New York).<\/p>\n
Experts speculate that Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s Babylonian forces filled the pool with debris at the time they conquered Jerusalem and Judaea and deported the population. Men from Gibeon went into captivity, and some returned 70 years later.<\/p>\n
A ten-year old Arab boy from the village of El Jib volunteered to guide me to the attractions of Gibeon, and a competent helper he proved to be. I remarked about his quite good English and he explained he studies it in school. I\u2019m sorry I didn\u2019t ask him whether the school was in the village or whether he is bussed to some other center. Sameer helped me climb over the barricades hindering access to the pool\u2019s staircase and then handed down my camera.<\/p>\n
Each of the three times I surveyed this landmark I felt haunted by ghosts of history\u2014Abner\u2019s men and Joab\u2019s men who jousted here to a stalemate.<\/p>\n
The time was the transition between the downfall of Saul and the ascendancy of David. God had designated David as Saul\u2019s successor on Israel\u2019s throne, but following that first king\u2019s demise on Mount Gilboa, Abner, Saul\u2019s Chief of Staff, established his master\u2019s son, Ish-bosheth as sovereign. Judah revolted and crowned David at Hebron, but the other tribes remained true to Saul\u2019s dynasty.<\/p>\n
A civil-war ensued in which David grew stronger and Saul\u2019s house waned weaker. One of the encounters in that conflict was the combat at Gibeon. Joab, David\u2019s Chief of Staff, and Abner eyeballed one-another across the pool there (2 Samuel 2:12, 13). Abner proposed, \u201cLet the young men now arise, and play before us\u201d (2 Samuel 2:14). He meant play war-games.<\/p>\n
Joab agreed, \u201cLet them arise.\u201d Twelve of Ish-bosheth\u2019s soldiers engaged twelve of David\u2019s.<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:2 (Spring 1974) p. 44<\/p>\n
\u201cThey caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword into his fellow\u2019s side; so they fell down together\u201d (2 Samuel 2:16). The contest concluded without a verdict.<\/p>\n
But war-games escalated to full-fleged battle, and in this David\u2019s forces prevailed. Abner beat a retreat. Eventually Abner defected to David, only to be ambushed treacherously by Joab who perhaps feared David would replace him with Abner as his Chief of Staff.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to recreate in one\u2019s mind the ancient encounter when you stand on the edge of this pool at Gibeon where undoubtedly the Bible story unfolded. And it\u2019s easy to envision Gibeonites of old plodding up the spiral staircase with buckets of water for the congregation of Israel.<\/p>\n
There is no water in the pool today, but the spring in the chamber beneath it still offers excellent supply, as those who have sampled it testify. And if a tourist explosion does not engulf El Jib\u2014and that appears most unlikely\u2014pollution won\u2019t contaminate this source for years to come.<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:2 (Spring 1974) p. 45<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raymond L Cox [Raymond L. Cox, a frequent contributor to Bible and Spade, is pastor of the Salem, Oregon Foursquare Church. He has traveled extensively in Bible lands and has written over 1650 articles on biblical and archaeological subjects. In addition, he is the author of four books.] For over 25 centuries the debris of … Continue reading “THE
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