“Gibbon” [Gibeon] it is wont to be called today by the Innovators, who admire more the modern points [vowel-pointing] of the Hebrews than the 70 Interpreters, the Latin text, and all the expounders of the most received usage. Benjamin of Tudela says [that] in his age it was called Garaan David — perhaps Gabaan — and [that it is] distinct from the Gabaa of Saul, concerning which [in] 1 Kings [1 Samuel] 11:4, chs. 13, 23, and 26. But it is described below (ch. 10, v. 2) thus: “Gabaon was a great city, and one of the royal cities; and greater than the town of Ai, and all its warriors most valiant.” And by these words four [things] are shown about this city. First: its size — that [it was] great. Secondly: [its] dignity — that [it was] “one of the royal cities.” But in the Hebrew, not “one,” but “as [it were] one of the royal cities”: so that, on account of [its] size and excellence, it may seem rather similar to such royal cities than [that it was] one of those which had a King. For although Abulensis asserts (ch. 10) [that it] had a King, yet nowhere here [is there] ever [anything] about any Gibeonite King — neither in the sending of the legates, nor in the covenant, nor in the war which followed (ch. 10). And so in the Greek [texts], ὡσεὶ μία τῶν μητροπόλεων [hōsei mia tōn mētropoleōn], that is, “as [it were] one of the mother-cities [metropoleis].” And therefore either a particle of this kind — “as,” “like” — dropped out in our [Latin] text, or the Interpreter took that particle not to diminish [the sense], but to affirm [it]. As elsewhere — for [example], the word in John 1, “as [it were] the only-begotten” [John 1:14] — or rather “one of the royal cities,” [where] “as it were” [is understood] on account of the likeness: just as if some man were said [to be] eloquent, and “one of the ancient Orators and wise Philosophers”; and so the sense [is] always the same. Thirdly: the comparison with the city of Ai — which at the beginning had given only trouble and grief, but afterward only joy and spoils — [namely] that [Gabaon was] greater than it. Fourthly: the virtue and strength of its citizens and inhabitants — that not some few of them, but
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[not some few of them, but] all [its] men most valiant. For although in the Greek there is no superlative, and the 70 render [it] by the positive — πάντες οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτῆς ἰσχυροί [pantes hoi andres autēs ischyroi, “all its men [are] strong”] — yet the Hebrews rightly render “gibborim” [as] “most valiant,” because the Hebrew “gibbor” imports a certain force and surpassing excess of strength. And so Nimrod is called [gibbor] (Gen. 10, vv. 8 & 9), [and] Goliath the Giant (1 Kings [Samuel] 17); thus [is] God [called, in] Ps. 23[24], v. 8, and in [Ps.] 32[33], v. 16. Yet often elsewhere [the gibborim] are rendered “strong” and “powerful” (2 Kings [Samuel] 1:19; ch. 17:7; ch. 23:8; 2 Chron. 32:3; Eccles. 9:11; Judg. 5:14; and elsewhere).
The same city, with respect to Jericho and Ai, is western; with respect to Jerusalem, northern; and [that] it is distant from these [i.e. from Jerusalem] by 50 stadia, says Josephus (bk. 2 of the Captivity [Jewish War], ch. 22 — in the Greek, ch. 37), that is, 6½ Italian miles, [and] in our German [miles] not quite two; but in leagues, as Benjamin says in his Itinerary, three — ἔγγιστα τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις [engista tois Hierosolymois, “very near to Jerusalem”], says Josephus (bk. 5).
That it stood in a higher place, the name derived from [its] height is an argument; and Adrichomius, [citing] from Brocardus, saying [that] it was situated on Mount Silo [Shiloh].
Its inhabitants were of the fifth of the nations enumerated above — namely the Hevites — as [is stated] below (ch. 11, v. 19). If, however, the name of the Amorites be taken generally, as I have said is done elsewhere, the Gabaonites are called “Amorites” (2 Kings [Samuel] 21:2). But this Gabaon, and the other [city], St. Jerome thus briefly depicts in the book On the Hebrew Places: “Gabaon, whence the Gabaonites came as suppliants to Jesus [Joshua], was once a Metropolis-city, and royal, of the Hevites, and fell into the lot of the tribe of Benjamin; and now a village of the same name is shown at the fourth milestone from Bethel, toward the Eastern region, near Rama and Rennon, where Solomon, victims being immolated, merited a divine oracle.” And it too was set apart for the Levites. Concerning the waters of Gabaon, and the battle once joined at them, the Prophet Jeremiah narrates (ch. 41, v. 12).