Jebus

Jee´buhs

A Canaanite village in central Palestine. The Jebusites were children of Canaan (Gen 10:16). Three passages equate Jebus with Jerusalem (Josh 15:8; Josh 18:28; Judg 19:10), leading many to propose that Jebus was a pre-Davidic name for the city that would come to be better known as Jerusalem (2Sam 5:6-9; 2Sam 24:18-25). It appears, however, that modern Sha’fat, just north of Jerusalem, works better as the site of Jebus than does Jerusalem in such passages as (Josh 15:5-11; Josh 18:15-19; Judg 19-21). In any case, the Jebusites were a powerful force in the hill country (Exod 3:8; Exod 13:5; Exod 23:23; Exod 33:2; Exod 34:11; Josh 12:8; Josh 24:11), and they were in control of Jerusalem in the period just prior to David’s conquest of it as his royal city (2Sam 5:6-9).