Jebus

Je'bus (Heb. Yebus', יבוּס, trodden hard, i.e. perh. fastness; Sept. Ι᾿εβούς), the name of the ancient Canaanitish city which stood on Mount Zion, one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built (Jebusi, Jos 15:8; Jos 18:16,28). In Jg 19:10 it is identified with Jerusalem, and in 1Ch 11:4-5, the only other passage in which the name occurs, it is identified with the castle of Zion, subsequently called the castle or city of David. The sides of Zion descended precipitously on the west and south into the deep valley of Hinnom, and on the east into the Tyropoeon, which separated it from Moriah. On the north side a branch valley, the upper part of-the Tyropceon, swept round it; and here was a ledge of rock on which a massive tower was afterwards founded, perhaps on the site of an older one. Recent excavations on the site remarkably corroborate these facts. SEE JERUSALEM. Jebus was thus naturally a place of great strength; and, being strongly fortified besides, it is not strange that the Jebusites should have gloried in it as impregnable (see Rose, Practicum Jebusceorum castri expugnati, Alt. 1729), and that the capture of it by David should have been considered one of his most brilliant achievements (2Sa 5:8). Even after Jebus was captured, and Jerusalem founded and made the capital of Israel, Zion was separately fortified. It seems that in addition to the "castle" on the summit of the hill there was a lower city or suburb, perhaps lying in the bottom of the adjoining valleys; for we read that the children of Judah had captured and burned Jerusalem (Jg 1:7-8), while afterwards it is said "the Benjamites did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem" (ver. 21). The Jebusites still held the "castle," which was within the allotted territory of Benjamin, but the children of Judah drove them out of the lower town, which was situated within their borders. This is, in substance, the explanation given by Josephus (Ant. 5, 2, 2 and 5). SEE JEBUSITE.