Gibeonites

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The inhabitants of Gibeon, an ancient group living in Canaan who appear in the Hebrew Bible as people who deceived Joshua into a treaty
2. A people of ancient Canaan mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, associated with the town of Gibeon and their famous deception of the Israelites
3. Members of an ancient Canaanite population from Gibeon, described in biblical texts as the Hivite people who tricked Joshua into a peace agreement

Etymology: "Gibeonites" is the plural of "Gibeonite," a term for an inhabitant of Gibeon, an ancient town in the territory of Benjamin, in what is now the West Bank. The name is built from the place name Gibeon with the suffix "-ite," which English uses to form nouns for people belonging to a place or group, as in Israelite or Canaanite. The people themselves have a memorable story in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Joshua, the Gibeonites tricked the Israelites into a treaty by pretending to come from a distant land, wearing worn sandals and carrying moldy bread. Once the deception was discovered, they were spared but made servants, cutting wood and drawing water for the sanctuary. The name thus became attached to a people whose survival depended on a clever ruse.