[5] Rabud is thought to lie on the site of the ancient Judean Kohanic city of Kiryat Sefer or Debir.

[6] By the seventh century BCE, the site of Khirbet Rabud had grown to a relatively large town that featured both a fortified city and an unwalled settlement.

[8] In 1863, Victor Guérin found here "caves and cisterns dug into the rock, ...small demolished houses and, on the highest point, the remains of a roughly built tower".

[9][10] In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine found here "walls, cisterns, and rude cave tombs.

A village council was established by the Palestinian National Authority in 1993 to administer Rabud's civil affairs and provide limited municipal services.