XVIII. GIBBETHON, THE CITY OF THE LEVITES

There is still another coincidence which falls under the same head.

In the fifteenth chapter of the first Book of Kings, (v. 27) I read that “Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him (i. e. Nadab the son of Jeroboam) at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon.”

It appears, then, that Gibbethon, situated in the tribe of Dan, had by some means or other fallen into the hands of the Philistines, and that the forces of Israel were now engaged in recovering possession of it. It may seem a very hopeless undertaking, at this time of day, to ascertain the circumstances of which an enemy availed himself, in order to gain possession of a particular town in Canaan, near three thousand years ago. Yet, perhaps, the investigation, distant as it is, is not desperate; for in the twenty-first chapter of Joshua (v. 23), I find Gibbethon and her suburbs mentioned as a city of the Levites. Now Jeroboam, we have heard, drove all the Levites out of Israel: what, then, can be more probable, than that Gibbethon, being thus suddenly evacuated, the Philistines, a remnant of the old enemy, still lurking in the country, and ever ready to rush in wherever there was a breach, should have spied an opportunity in the defenceless state of Gibbethon, and claimed it as their own [That the Philistines were thus dispersed over the land may be gathered from many hints in Scripture; even in the kingdom of Judah they were to be found, much more in Israel. “Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents, and tributesilver,” 2 Chron. 17:11. Probably the miscreants mentioned 1 Kings 15:12, whom Asa expelled, and those mentioned 22:46, whom Jehoshaphat his son drove out, and those again mentioned 2 Kings 23:7, who were established even at Jerusalem, whom Josiah cast out, were all of this nation. And there still were Hittites somewhere at hand, who had even kings of their own, 1 Kings 10:29; 2 Kings 7:6; and we read of a land of the Philistines, where the Shunammite sojourned during the famine, 2 Kings 8:2; and, indeed, the Philistines are one of the nations against whom Jeremiah prophesies as about to be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, (47:4, ) all evident tokens that a considerable body of the primitive inhabitants of Palestine still dwelt in it.] ? It is, indeed, far from improbable that this story of Gibbethon is that of many other Levitical cities throughout Israel; that this is but a glimpse of much similar confusion, misery, and intestine tumult, by which that kingdom was now convulsed; and, though a solitary fact in itself, a type of many more;—and thus, in another way, did the profane act of Jeroboam operate to the downfall of his kingdom, and fatally eat into its strength.

Whether I am right in this conjecture, it is impossible to tell; the case does not admit of positive decision either way; but, certainly the grounds upon which it rests are, to say the least, very specious; and if they are sound, as I think they are, I cannot imagine a point of harmony more complete, or more undesigned, than that which we have found between these half-dozen words touching Gibbethon, a Levitical city, lapsing into the hands of the Philistines, and the expulsion of the Levites out of Israel by the sin of Jeroboam.