Jebusites

- descendants of Jebus, or inhabitants of the city bearing that name. The word designated one of the Canaanite peoples (Gen 10:16; 15:21; Exod 3:8). The spies sent by Moses speak of the Canaanites as a strong people dwelling in the mountains (Num 13:29). The same is said of them in Joshua 10:1, when Adoni-zedek was king of Jerusalem. The Jebusites were not fully subdued for a long time (Josh 15:63; Judg 19:11). Jebus, which is Jerusalem, lost its king at the battle of Beth-horon and was plundered and burned by the tribe of Judah; its fortress upon the height was occupied and subdued by David (2 Sam 5:6-7).

Even then the Jebusites could not be entirely expelled from their mountain ravines. In David's time Araunah the Jebusite was especially well known; David bought his threshing floor and oxen for fifty shekels of silver. Biblical history gives interesting details about this remarkable person (2 Sam 24:18-25; see Araunah). Solomon compelled the Jebusites, whose fortress David had taken, to pay tribute (2 Chr 8:7-8). They are mentioned with the other Canaanite peoples after the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, but by then they had clearly lost their former prominence, and the Bible says nothing more of them.