GIBBETHON

GIBBETHON (Heb. גִּבְתוֹן). (1) Town in the territory of Dan, mentioned with Eltekeh and Baalath (Josh. 19:44). It is also listed as a levitical city of the Kohathite family (ibid. 21:23) and was thus apparently a Davidic administrative center (its name is absent in the parallel text of levitical cities in I Chron. 6). Gibbethon appears twice in the Book of Kings as a Philistine city that was besieged by Nadab and "all Israel" and again by Elah; both sieges, however, were interrupted by revolutions in the besieging armies and were unsuccessful (I Kings 15:27; 16:15). It may also be included in the list of cities captured by Thutmose III in c. 1469 B.C.E. (no. 103). Gibbethon is generally identified with Tel al-Malāt (now called Tell Gibbethon), southwest of Gezer, a prominent mound containing pottery from the Chalcolithic to the Arabic periods. (Michael Avi-Yonah)   (2) Moshav Gibbethon (Givton) in central Israel, near Reḥovot , affiliated with Tenu'at ha-Moshavim, was founded in 1933 by settlers from Eastern Europe as one of the villages of the "Thousand Families Settlement Scheme." Citriculture constitutes a prominent farm branch. Modern Gibbethon does not seem to lie on the ancient site. In the mid-1990s, the population was approximately 215, while in the end of 2002 it grew to number 290 residents. (Efraim Orni) -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Von Rad, in: PJB, 29 (1933), 30ff., 35; EM, 1 (1963), 354.