Jebusites

According to the testimony of the Old Testament, the Jebusites were a people in the Near East of Canaanite tribe. At the time of the conquest of the land by the Israelites on the mountains of Judah, they lived alongside other Canaanite tribes as well as the Hittites and Amorites . They are said to have been fought by Joshua in a field battle with the other tribes, but held their own in the fortified city of Jebus (later Jerusalem ) in the age of the judges .

Only David conquered the city and the castle, and the last remnants of the Jebusites made tribute to Solomon .

Historical background

Science knows nothing more about this people through archaeological or extra-biblical evidence. Between the reports of the Egyptian Amarna letters around 1400 BC BC, who call a ruler Abdi-Hepa for Jerusalem ( Hapiru ), and the reports of the Book of Joshua are about 400 years apart. However, the archaeological findings show no significant change in the social and cultural population structures. The inhabitants of Jerusalem ruled the mountainous country, which was settled by semi-nomadic, vagabond and marauding gangs, called Apiru (possibly the Hebrews) in the Egyptian texts , and supplemented by around 20 permanent Iron Age settlements in the time of David. Under the protection of Jerusalem, they made the richer cities of the plains unsafe with their raids. The book of Joshua paints such a picture for the group around David and the Jebusites before the conquest of Jerusalem. David then became their chief and ruler as an occasional protector. So it is possible that they were long-established populations in Jerusalem and the southern mountainous region.

Role in the bible

According to the Pentateuch , the Jebusites are one of the peoples designated by YHWH for destruction by the Israelites:

When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you come to conquer it, and he will cut off many nations from before you, the Hittites , the Girgashites , the Amorites , the Canaanites , the Perizzites , the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater than that and are stronger than you, and if the Lord your God delivers them before you to smite them, you shall destroy them. (5th Book of Moses 7) ( Dtn 7.1 EU )

literature

Israel Finkelstein , Neil Asher Silberman: David and Solomon. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54676-5 , p. 48 f.

Web links

Erasmus Gaß : Jebus / Jebusiter. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.