Come I Pray Thee and Let Us Turn Aside Into this City of the Jebusites

The biblical story of the concubine in Gibeah (Judges 19) tells of a man traveling with his concubine and a servant from Bethlehem in Judah to Mount Ephraim along the mountaintop road, the “Patriarch’s Road,” and passing near ancient Jerusalem. When they reached the point “over against Jebus,” at the edge of the Hinnom Valley (apparently where Jerusalem’s Old Train Station  Complex now is) the man refuses his servant’s suggestion to spend the night in Jerusalem.

The mention of the city in passing teaches us two important things: First, that Jerusalem’s name before it was conquered by King David was “Jebus,” after its Jebusite inhabitants. Second, the man does not refuse his servant’s suggestion because Jerusalem was too far away, but rather because its inhabitants are foreigners. This means that Jerusalem was near the main road, and this was no doubt one of the considerations that led its ancient inhabitants to live there.