Entrenchment and Final Defeat

The Jebusites were so entrenched in the land that the Israelites never successfully dislodged them from their territories (Josh 15:63; Judg 1:21). This situation seems to have persisted through the 40-year reign of Israel’s first king, Saul, whose capital, Gibeah, was only 5 miles from Jebus. Details from the biblical narrative combine to indicate that the Jebusites were either too powerful for Saul to defeat or amicably aligned with him (Wright, Greatness, 46; Aharoni, Land, 258).

Saul’s successor, David, finally conquered Jebus and established his capital there. David reigned in Hebron for 7 years before turning his attention to Jebus. He finally dislodged the Jebusites, established his own capital, and renamed the city Jerusalem (2 Sam 5:5–7). While certain Jebusites still lived in the area (such as Araunah/Ornan, whose threshing floor became the site of the temple; 2 Sam 24:18–25; 1 Chr 21:18–22:1), the Jebusites fade from the biblical narrative as an established people-group after being conquered by David.