GIBEAH, now Tuleil e-Fûl.—[Wikipedia] From the site of Nob we ride down the rocky declivity, then across the narrow valley, and then up the steep bare side of Tuleil el-Fûl, “The Hill of the Beans.” On the summit are ruins, but of what—whether palace, fortress, or temple—it is impossible to tell; a rounded, confused heap of stones is all that can be made out. This forms a kind of nob upon the conical hill, rendering it more conspicuous over all the surrounding country. Below it the sides are rudely terraced, and clothed in spring with narrow strips of straggling corn that one would think scarcely worth reaping. . The view from the top is wide, and wild, and dreary enough; but, still intensely interesting. The eye follows the grey declivities of Benjamin on the E., down to the Jordan valley, and then rises up to the long wall of purple-tinted mountains beyond. On the S. we get a peep at the buildings on Zion over the brow of Scopus. On the W. is the high peak of Neby Samwîl, the ancient Mizpeh, crowned with mosk and minaret. On the N. the sightly village on the top of the little hill opposite us is er-Râm, the Ramah of Benjamin. The sites of Anathoth, Geba, and Michmash are also visible from this commanding point.

On and around this tell once stood the city that gave Israel its first king— sometimes called Gibeah (“The Hill”) of Benjamin, and sometimes Gibeah of Saul. (Jud. xix. 14; 1 Sam. xi. 4.) The ancient name is gone, but the position is fixed definitely by the notices of Josephus and Jerome, The former, in connexion with Titus’s march upon Jerusalem, gives its distance from that city at 30 stadia. The latter refers to it in his narrative of Paula's journey —‘She stopped for a little at Gabaa, then levelled to the ground, calling to mind its ancient crime, and the concubine cut in pieces; and then, leaving the mausoleum of Helena on her l, she entered Jerusalem.” With these agree also the horrid story of the Levite in the book of Judges (xix.). He left Bethlehem in the afternoon to go home to Mount Ephraim. His servant advised him to spend the night in Jebus (Jerusalem); but he declined to lodge with strangers, and said he would pass on to Gibeah or Ramah. The sun set as they were beside the former, and so they entered the city. The abominable crime and awful tragedy which followed are well known—they resulted in the almost total annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin. (Jud. xx. and xxi.) Gibeah was the home of Saul, and the seat of his government during the greater part of his reign. (1 Sam. x. 26; xi. 4; xv. 34; xxiii. 19.) And here on this hill the Amorites of Gibeon hanged the 7 descendants of Saul in revenge for the massacre of their brethren. This was then the scene of that touching tale of maternal tenderness, when Rizpah, the mother of two of the victims, “ took sackcloth and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest upon them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.” It must have been a mournful spectacle to see the bereaved mother sitting by the wasting skeletons of her sons, throughout the long days of a whole Syrian summer, from the beginning of harvest in April till the first rains in autumn. (2 Sam. xxi.) There is no mention of this city subsequent to the captivity; and we know it was already completely desolate in the days of Jerome. °