Hebrew word · H2982

יְבוּס

yevus

Jebus

The name of the city before David took it, linked to its inhabitants, the Jebusites (yəḇûsî), one of the peoples of pre-Israelite Canaan listed in Genesis 10:16, Joshua 15:63 and elsewhere.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Jebus = "threshing place"

an early name for Jerusalem, the city of the Jebusites; also 'Jebusi'

Another name of ye.ru.sha.laim (יְרוּשָׁלִַ֫ם, יְרוּשְׁלֵם "Jerusalem" H3389)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 1 Chronicles 11:5

Range of meaning

The name of the city before David took it, linked to its inhabitants, the Jebusites (yəḇûsî), one of the peoples of pre-Israelite Canaan listed in Genesis 10:16, Joshua 15:63 and elsewhere.

Against the English

English versions keep 'Jebus' or write 'the people of Jebus'. That is accurate. The question is historical: whether the city was ever actually called 'Jebus'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Outside the Bible, the city is called Urusalim/Rušalimum in Egyptian Execration Texts (c. 19th–18th century BCE) and in the Amarna letters of its king Abdi-Heba (14th century BCE). No ancient text outside the Bible calls it 'Jebus'. In the Bible the name appears only in Judges 19:10–11 and 1 Chronicles 11:4–5, both times with an explanation ('that is, Jerusalem').

Where it appears

Judges · 2

  1. Judges 19:10 יְב֔וּס Jebus

    But the man was unwilling to spend the night. He got up and departed, and arrived opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine.

  2. Judges 19:11 יְב֔וּס Jebus

    When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, “Please, let us stop at this Jebusite city and spend the night here.”

1 Chronicles · 2

  1. 1 Chronicles 11:4 יְב֑וּס [was] Jebus

    Then David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus), where the Jebusites inhabited the land.

  2. 1 Chronicles 11:5 יְבוּס֙ Jebus

    The people of Jebus said to David, “You will never get in here.” Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the City of David).

    Here: The name the Bible gives to pre-Israelite Jerusalem in only a few places (Judges 19:10–11; 1 Chronicles 11:4–5). Here it marks the city as still foreign, before it becomes David's.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.