[5][6] The identification is based on the biblical description of Geba as being just across the wadi from Michmash (present-day Mukhmas), and on archeological findings which show that the site was heavily populated during the Iron Age II and the Hellenistic period.

[8] In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as [Jaba] al-Battih, located in the Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of Al-Quds.

[15][16] Clermont-Ganneau, during his 1873 visit to the village, was informed by local residents that they originated from the region east of the Jordan.

Another legend, told by an old fellah who received it from his ancestors and Christians in Bethlehem, recounted a narrative akin to that of the Levite's Concubine.

[17] In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as "A village of moderate size standing on a rocky knoll.

This plain is open arable land, extending to the brink of the precipitous cliffs on the north.

The village has caves beneath, at the foot of the knoll [...] and there are olives on the west, north, and south.

West of the village, by the old road, are cisterns, rock-cut, and in one case roofed with a rubble tunnel-vault.

This identification is solely local, as Islamic tradition generally identifies the tomb of Jacob in the Cave of the Patriarchs, in Hebron.

People from the area used to visit the site, make vows, and swear under the branches of the old olive tree located there.