1 Samuel 13:16

Gibeah. The Hebrew here reads Geba, not Gibeah as in v. 15. Geba was directly across the wadi from Michmash (see ch. 14:4, 5, where Geba, not Gibeah, is in the original of v. 5). The confusion in the translation probably arose from the opinion that Geba and Gibeah were only variant spellings of the same place, as older maps still show. It is true that Geba is sometimes called Gibeah, but there seem to have been two places (see on ch. 14:16). If recent excavations, in addition to other Bible clues, have correctly placed Saul’s stronghold at Tell el-Ful, 3 mi. (5 km.) southwest of Geba and directly north of Jerusalem (see Vol. I, p. 124), Jonathan did not go there, but evidently “abode in” Geba, across from Michmash, as here implied, after he took it from the Philistines (v. 3), and Saul probably joined him after returning from Gilgal.