The remains of Gibeon are located in the southern portion of the Palestinian village of al-Jib in the occupied West Bank area called Area C After the destruction of Jericho and Ai, the Hivite people of Gibeon sent ambassadors to trick Joshua and the Israelites into making a treaty with them.

According to the writer of the book of Deuteronomy (Deut 7:1–2; 20:16–20), the Israelites were commanded to destroy all non-Israelite Canaanites in the land.

He kept the letter of his covenant with the Gibeonites, however, to let them live in exchange for their servitude: they were assigned as woodcutters and water carriers and condemned (or cursed) to work forever in these trades (Joshua 9:3–27).

[4] Following the capture of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines, the remaining part of the Tabernacle was moved from Shiloh to the "great high place" in Gibeon (1 Samuel 4:1–22, 1 Chronicles 21:29).

[6] Following Saul's death, fighting between the soldiers of Joab and those of Abner took place beside the Pool of Gibeon (2 Samuel 2:12).

Much later, after the death of his rebellious son Absalom and his restoration to the throne, the kingdom of Israel was visited by a three-year drought, which led David to ask God what was wrong.

The drought was then revealed to be divine judgement against King Saul's decision to completely exterminate the Gibeonites (2 Samuel 21:1), in his "zeal for Israel and Judah".

[9] Gibeon is mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah as one of the towns resettled by the Jewish exiles returning from the Babylonian captivity and who helped to construct the walls of Jerusalem during the reign of Artaxerxes I (Xerxes).

[13] Theologian Hans-Peter Mathys notes, "no other OT book mentions a regular (sacrificial) cult in Gibeon.

These four verses, though, were more likely conceived by the Chronicler, [who] ... is at pains to portray an uninterrupted and legitimate (sacrificial) cult spanning the entire period from the desert era (with its tabernacle), including the LORD's residence at Gibeon, right up to Solomon's establishment of the temple in Jerusalem.

"[14] During the early phases of the First Jewish–Roman War, the Roman governor of Syria, Cestius Gallus, camped in Gibeon while en route to Jerusalem and again during his retreat.

[15] In regard to the Gibeonites and the killing of seven descendants of King Saul: According to the Babylonian Talmud:[16] "...As to the nethinim,[17] however, let them be summoned and we shall pacify them.

[30] And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured upon them from heaven; and she suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on then by day, nor the beast of the field by night.

[32] — R. Johanan replied in the name of R. Simeon b. Jehozadak: It is proper that a letter be rooted out of the Torah so that thereby the heavenly name shall be publicly hallowed.

[44] In the 10 genealogical classes (yuhasin) set forth in the Mishnah, they are ranked above shetukim (people of whose paternity is unknown) and assufim (foundlings)[45] but beneath mamzerim, the offspring of illicit unions, and were prohibited from marrying Israellites of good standing,[44] though intermarriage between the last four classes, which included freed slaves,[46] was permitted.

[49] The earliest known mention of Gibeon in an extra-biblical source is in a list of cities on the wall of the Amun temple at Karnak, celebrating the invasion of Israel by Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenq I (945–924 BCE).

[53] The 10th-century lexicographer David ben Abraham al-Fasi, identified al-Jib with the ancient city Gibeon, which view was corroborated also by the Hebrew Lexicon compiled by Wilhelm Gesenius and Frants Buhl ("now al-Ǧīb").

[54] The first identification of al-Jib with the ancient Canaanite city of Gibeon was made by Frantz Ferdinand von Troilo in 1666, and later adopted by Edward Robinson in 1838 in his Biblical Researches in Palestine.

Tombs cut into the rock on the east site of the hill contained EB jars and bowls, formed first by hand and then finished on a slow wheel.

[56][57] Pritchard suggested that somewhere in an area not touched by his four-year dig, remains of the Bronze Age "great city" from the Book of Joshua might still be found.

Later in the Iron Age, another tunnel of 93 steps was constructed to a better water source[dubious – discuss] below the city starting from a point near the pool.

[3][56] The flat and fertile land with many springs which surrounds it gave rise to a flourishing economy, attested to in the large number of ancient jars and wine cellars discovered there.

Potsherds and coinage from the Late Hellenistic and Hasmonean periods, dating to Antiochus III's and John Hyrcanus' reigns, were discovered at the site.

Eusebius, in his Onomasticon, mentions Gibeon (Gabaon) as formerly being inhabited by the Gibeonites, who were a Hivite nation, and that their village was located about 4 milestones to the west of Bethel, near Ramah.

[63] The 10th-century lexicographer, David ben Abraham al-Fasi identified al-Ǧīb" (now al-Jib) with the ancient city Gibeon, which view was accepted by Frants Buhl and by other historical geographers[64] and described as such in the Hebrew Lexicon compiled by Wilhelm Gesenius,[65] and proved by Hebrew inscriptions unearthed in 1956.

[56] At a nearby ruin, built on the southern slope of a ridge at the western side of the al-Jib highland, archaeologists discovered a Hellenistic-Second Temple period dwelling, in which were found a plastered ritual bath with three descending staircases and an industrial zone with lime kilns.