Bible Word Study
גִּבְעָתִי
Gibʻâthîy · a Gibathite, or inhabitant of Gibath
גִּבְעָתִי
a Gibathite, or inhabitant of Gibath
Definition
The Hebrew word גִּבְעָתִי (Gibʻâthîy) is a gentilic noun meaning 'a Gibeathite' or 'an inhabitant of Gibeath.' It specifically denotes a person from the city of Gibeath, which is likely the same location as Gibeah (גִּבְעָה), a city in the territory of Benjamin. The term appears only once in the Old Testament, in 1 Chronicles 12:3, where it identifies Ahiezer and Joash, two of David's mighty men, as 'the Gibeathite.' This single usage serves to specify their hometown origin, linking them to a known Benjaminite city.
Biblical Usage
This word is used only once in the entire Old Testament, in 1 Chronicles 12:3. It is used in a list of warriors who joined David at Ziklag, functioning solely as a geographical identifier to specify the hometown of two individuals, Ahiezer and Joash. There are no patterns of usage across different books or contexts, as it is a hapax legomenon (a word occurring only once).
Etymology
The word גִּבְעָתִי (Gibʻâthîy) is derived as a patrial noun from the feminine noun גִּבְעָה (Gibʻâh, H1390), meaning 'hill' or specifically the city name 'Gibeah.' The suffix -ִי (-î) is a common Hebrew gentilic ending added to place names to indicate origin or belonging, meaning 'of' or 'from.' Thus, the meaning develops directly from the place name to 'one from Gibeath.'
Semantic Range
In its original context, identifying someone as a 'Gibeathite' immediately connected them to the city of Gibeath/Gibeah in Benjamin. This city had significant historical associations, most notably as the hometown of King Saul (1 Samuel 10:26) and the site of a horrific civil war in Judges 19-20. For the original readers of Chronicles, the label would have evoked these associations, situating these loyalists to David as coming from a region with a complex royal and tribal history. גִּבְעוֹנִי (Gibʻônîy, H1393) — an inhabitant of Gibeon, a different city. בִּנְיָמִינִי (Binyâmîynîy, H1145) — a general term for a Benjaminite, the tribe in which Gibeath was located.
Word Details
How this works
Definitions are from the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (BDB, 1906, public domain). Concordance and morphology data are from the OSHB (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible).
Full methodology & sources →References
- Abbott-Smith, G. (1921) A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Brown, F., Driver, S.R. and Briggs, C.A. (1906) A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Public Domain]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Tyndale Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (TBESG). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Formatted full LSJ (TFLSJ). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Thayer, J.H. (1889) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. [Public Domain]
- Gesenius, W. (1846) Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament. [Public Domain]
- Dodson, J. (2010) Greek Lexicon. Biblical Humanities. [CC0]