The Jebusites of Canaan's's Jebus and of Israelites

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

 

 King Abimelech of Shechem (Nablus), an  ancient Canaanite town between Mt. Gerizen and Mt. Ebal,  that became part of Judah through King David. 

 Nablus was in Jordanian territory from 1948 CE-1967 until the Six Day War which Israel won back land Jordan had taken. Palestinians

now live here, and it is to be a main city of their future Palestine.  

Abimelech was also king of  Gerar, as the son of Gideon and his Shechemite concubine, and the biblical account of his reign is described in chapter 9 of the Book of Judges. According to the Bible, he was an unprincipled, ambitious ruler, often engaged in war with his own subjects.

                                     

Abimelech was king of Shechem, a walled city whose history went back to 2000 BCE under Egyptian control as early as that of the 12th dynasty.  The Biblical patriarchs had camped under its walls and it was pillaged by the tribes of Simeon and Levi (Ge. 34).  Later, the city was in the territory of Ephraim, a levitical city and a city of refuge, as well as the center of the House of Joseph.  Joseph is buried in Shechem.  

  Some of us might be carrying a few Jebusite genes.  They were a people who entered Canaan before the Exodus of Israelites from Egypt (1579-1539).  They chose the hill region to live in, mainly around Jerusalem which they called Jebus.  

In the Bible, God ordered the destruction of the Canaanites, but that some cities and people may have survived..  Archaeological data suggests that Canaanite cities were never destroyed or abandoned. Now, 

ancient DNA recovered from five Canaanite skeletons suggests that these people survived to contribute their genes to millions of people living today.

The new samples come from Sidon, a coastal city in Lebanon. Marc

 Haber, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, 

U.K., extracted enough DNA from the ancient skeletons to sequence the whole genomes of five Canaanite individuals, all around 3700 years old.

We will find out more later.  

                                             

Joshua defeated a Jebusite-led coalition, Jerusalem was occupied only in the reign of David when David conquered the city and it became his capital. (II Sam. 5:6-7) The last Jebusite king was apparently King Araunah (II Sam.24:15). The First Book of Chronicles, a later text, renders his name as Ornan.  The word araunah is not a personal name but a title meaning "the lord" in Hurrian and other near eastern languages. In 2 Samuel 24:23, Araunah is referred to as a king: "... Araunah the king gave to the king [i.e., David]".

 At the time of Joshua's invasion the capital of the Jebusites was Jerusalem, called also "Jebus" (Judges xix. 10, 11; II Sam. v. 6), whose king Adoni-zedek organized a confederacy against Joshua. Adoni-zedek was defeated at Beth-horon, and he himself was slaughtered at Makkedah (Josh. x. 1-27); but the Jebusites could not be driven from their mountainous position, and they dwelt at Jerusalem with the children of Judah and Benjamin (Josh. xv. 63; Judges i. 21).

Araunah's property was on Mt. Moriah, the site of Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac.  (II Chronicles 3:1). There had been a pestilence in Israel and 70,000 men died from it from the land of the tribe of Dan to the city of Beer-sheba in the Desert, and was about to hit Jerusalem.

                                             

                     David buying the threshing floor

  Gad (Gad (/ɡæd/) was a seer or prophet mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the writings of Jewish historian Josephus. He was one of the personal prophets of King David of Israel and, according to the Talmudic tradition, some of his writings are believed to be included in the Books of Samuel.) came to King David and told him to erect an altar to G-d on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.  Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants coming across to him, and Araunah went out and prostrated himself to the king, with his face to the ground and asked why the king had come to him, and David replied, "To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to G-d so that the pestilence may cease from the people. Araunah replied  "Let my lord  the king take it and offer whatever is proper in his eyes.  However, David refused the free offer and insisted on buying the land for 50 shekels.  The pestilence stopped.                                                                    

King David ruled from Jerusalem, which was his 2nd capital, the 1st being Hebron where he was for 7 years and 6 months starting at age 30.  Hebron today is only 19 miles from Jerusalem.  David  had moved to Jerusalem. He ruled over Israel and Judah for 33 years.  Hebron today is a Palestinian town.  

When he entered Jerusalem, a Jebusite had said to him, "You shall not enter here unless you remove the blind and the lame," as if to insinuate that he wouldn't be able to enter the city.  David then captured Zion Fortress, which is called the City of David.  This city had been so well fortified that you could not conquer it even if it were guarded only by the blind and the lame.                     

According to the Midrash, the Jebusites alluded to the Patriarchs. Abraham had made a treaty of peace with King Abimelech, a Jebusite ancestor (Genesis 21:23).  Abimelech (/əˈbɪməˌlɛk/; אֲבִימֶלֶךְ 'Ǎḇîmeleḵ) was the king of Shechem and a son of a biblical judge, Gideon. His name can best be interpreted as "my father is king", claiming the inherited right to rule.To commemorate the binding nature of the treaty, the Jebusites set up statues of a blind man, alluding to the blind Isaac (Genesis 27:1), and a cripple, alluding to Jacob (Gen. 32:26), and placed the words of the treaty in the statues' mouths.    

David declared on that day, "Whoever smites the Jebusite and reaches the stronghold, and the blind and the lame, that David detests....Therefore, people will say, The blind and the lame are here;  he shall not enter the house!"  David settled in the fortress and called it, "the City of David."  He built around the city, from the Millo and inward. David had occupied Jerusalem and had made it his capital. Then it was the most important city of Israel; the capital.   

 His reputation became greater, and G-d was with him.

                                             

                        Solomon's Temple , king who died in 920 BCE
  The Jebusites remained in Jerusalem under David and became tributary under Solomon, David's son.  In the course of time, they appear to have been assimilated.  

Centuries later, Shechem was overshadowed  by Samaria, but remained the cult center of the Samaritans.  In the year 72s, Vespasian founded the nearby Neapolis (modern Nablus), which became an important Roman city;  most of its inhabitants remained Samaritans.  

In Crusader days, Shechem, called Naples, was a royal city with a palace and fortress.  

By 1967 it had 44,000 population  and was overwhelmingly Muslim with a tiny Samaritan community left, and has for decades been a center of fanatical Arab nationalism.  A small Jewish community formerly existed there.  Today we see headlines: 

       

Joseph's Tomb restored after October arson attack by Palestinians in Nablus

 Terrorist attack prevented as 1,200 worshippers visit Joseph's Tomb.  

Firefight breaks out between IDF and Palestinian forces in Nablus

Resource: 

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8542-jebusites

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/07/ancient-dna-reveals-fate-mysterious-canaanites

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Tanakh, the Stone Edition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict_in_Hebron

https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/terrorist-attack-prevented-as-1200-worshippers-visit-josephs-tomb-597138

https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/josephs-tomb-restored-after-october-arson-attack-by-palestinian-rioters-431911

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/fire-exchange-between-idf-and-palestinian-forces-in-nablus-report-592115