According to the record in the
Hebrew Bible, Gibbeton was occupied by the
Tribe of Dan after the entry of the
Israelites into the
Promised Land and was then given to the
Tribe of Levi. According to the
Book of Joshua, it was given as a
Levitical city to the
Kohathites. However, in it was recorded as being a city of the
Philistines.
Nadab, the second king of the
northern Kingdom of Israel, besieged Gibbethon. During the siege,
Baasha the son of
Ahijah, a member of the
tribe of Issachar, killed King Nadab of Israel and made himself king, reigning over the northern kingdom for 24 years.
John James Blunt, in his
Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings both of the Old and New Testaments (1882), suggested that "the place had been deserted by the
Levites, in the general exodus to
Judah, [so] that the Philistines availed themselves of the opportunity to seize and fortify it". ==Identification==