A Hivite people who inhabited the town of Gibeon and its district, they were one of the seven nations of ancient Canaan. The Book of Joshua (ch. 9) recounts how the Gibeonites deceived Joshua and the Israelites at the time of the conquest of the land, in order to prevent Joshua from waging war on them. When the trickery was revealed, the Israelites could not go back on the pact they had made with them, and instead they made them "hewers of wood and drawers of water." Saul had some of them put to death, and for this reason there was famine in the land for three years (II Sam. 21:1–2). On the return of the exiles to Zion (Shivat Zion) from Babylon, the Gibeonites worked on rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem (Neh. 3:7). In the latter books of the Bible and in the Talmud there is mention made of the tribe called Nethinim (in the sense of being subjected to service of others), and it is thought that they may have been the descendants of the Gibeonites. In popular usage, "Gibeonite" came to mean someone who sold his honor for money or for the sake of temporary pleasure or advantage.
