GIBBETHON

(Gibʹbe·thon) [mound or height].

A city originally assigned to the tribe of Dan (Josh. 19:40, 41, 44) but later given to the Kohathites as a Levite city. (Josh. 21:20, 23) Centuries later Gibbethon was in the hands of the Philistines, and it was while Israel’s King Nadab attempted to wrest the city from them that the conspirator Baasha assassinated him. (1 Ki. 15:27) Gibbethon was under Philistine control some twenty-four years later when Omri, army chief of Israel, encamped against it. Acclaimed as king by the Israelite camp there, Omri broke off the siege of Gibbethon to attack the rival Israelite king Zimri.—1 Ki. 16:15-18.

Gibbethon is generally identified with Tell el-Melat, about four and a half miles (7 kilometers) N of the suggested site of the Philistine city of Ekron.