Gibeon גבעון
City of the Gibeonites' shrewd treaty with Yehoshua and the Mishkan's last station, where Shlomo asked for wisdom.
Gibeon first appears as the city that saved itself by cunning. Hearing of Jericho and Ai, its people come to the Israelite camp in worn clothes with mouldy bread, posing as envoys from a distant land. A treaty is sworn; when the deception is exposed Yehoshua keeps the oath but makes them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the sanctuary.
The Land's first great battle is fought over Gibeon: five kings besiege it, Yehoshua marches overnight from Gilgal, and at the height of the fighting speaks the words that became proverbial — «Sun, stand still over Gibeon».
Later, after Nov is destroyed, the Mishkan is moved to Gibeon, «the great high place». Here the young Shlomo offers a thousand sacrifices and, in a dream, asks for «a listening heart» — the request that defines his reign.