Geba

Geba (meaning: a hill; cup) was a Benjaminite town assigned to the Kohathite Levites as a city of residence (Joshua 21:17). It lay approximately six miles north of Jerusalem on the northern border of the kingdom of Judah. The town appears at several critical moments in Israel's military history: Jonathan attacked the Philistine garrison stationed there, triggering the war of liberation under Saul (1 Samuel 13:3). David later pursued the Philistines from Gibeon to Geba (2 Samuel 5:25; 1 Chronicles 14:16).

Asa king of Judah fortified Geba as part of his border defense against Israel, using stones from the demolished Ramah (1 Kings 15:22). Josiah defiled the high places from Geba to Beersheba during his religious reform, using Geba as the northern marker of Judah's territory — the classic boundary formula (2 Kings 23:8). After the exile, Geba was resettled by returning Benjaminites (Nehemiah 11:31) and appears in Zechariah's eschatological vision of the transformed land of Judah (Zechariah 14:10).