著者

小泉 達人

出版者

東京女子大学

雑誌

東京女子大學論集 (ISSN:04934350)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.24, no.2, pp.1-19, 1974-03-01

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Gibeon and her neighbouring three sister cities are of Canaanite origin. They made a covenant of peace with Israelites (Josh ix). But King Saul persecuted them violating that covenent (II Sam xxi 1-6). There are some good evidences that David and Solomon, on the contrary, showed special favour to Gibeonites. From where did this sudden change of policies come? In this short article, I discussed this problem which had been left unnoticed by many. The conclusion of my investigations is as follows: there must have been fierce and prolonged battles between David and Saulites. In these battles David is supposed to have received much help from Gibeonites and their neighbours who had cherished resentment against Saul. Gibeon and her sister cities formed an enclave in the territory of Benjamin tribe who were the nucleus of Saulite forces. So Gibeonite cooperation may have been very effective to weaken David's enemy. After his victory, David and Solomon still needed their help in order to control the dissatisfied and grudging Benjaminites. This is the reason for the special favour of David and Solomon to Gibeon and her allies.