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(Heb. Yebusi', éְáåּñַé , Sept. É᾿åâïõóáῖïò , but É᾿åâïῦò in Jos_15:8; Jos_18:28, or É᾿åâïýò in Jdg_19:11; 1Ch_11:4; also É᾿åâïõóáß in Jos_18:16, and É᾿åâïõóß in Ezr_9:1; A.V. “Jebusi' in Jos_18:16; Jos_18:28), the name of the original inhabitants of Jebus, frequently mentioned (usually last in the list) amongst the seven Canaanitish nations doomed to destruction (Gen_10:16; Gen_15:21; Exo_3:8; Exo_3:17; Exo_13:5; Exo_23:23; Exo_33:2; Exo_34:11; Num_13:29; Deu_7:1; Deu_20:17; Jos_3:10; Jos_9:1; Jos_11:3; Jos_12:8; Jos_24:11; Jdg_3:5; 1Ki_9:20; 1Ch_1:14 : 2Ch_8:7; Ezr_9:1; Neh_9:8). They appear to have descended from a grandson of Ham (Gen_10:16). “His place in the list is between Heth and the Amorites (Gen_10:16; 1Ch_1:14), a position which the tribe maintained long after (Num_13:29; Jos_11:3); and the same connection is traceable in the words of Eze_16:3; Eze_16:45, who addresses Jerusalem as the fruit of the union of an Amorite with a Hittite” (Smith). At the time of the arrival of the Israelites (see Jour. Siac. Lit. Oct. 1851, p. 167) they were found to be a considerable tribe on the west of Jordan (Jos_9:1), seated on one of the hills of Judah (some have wrongly inferred Moriah from 2Ch_3:1, but in 2Sa_5:9 it is clearly identified with Zion), near the Hittites and Amorites (Num_13:30; Jos_11:3), where they had founded a city called JEBUS (Jos_18:28; comp. 19:10), probably after the name of their progenitor, and established a royal form of government, being then ruled by Adonizedek (Jos_10:1; Jos_10:23). SEE SALEIM. They seem to have been a warlike tribe; and, although they were defeated with much slaughter, and Adoni-zedek, their king, slain by Joshua (Joshua 10), and though a part of their city seems to have been afterwards taken, sacked, and burned by the warriors of Judah (Jdg_1:8), yet they were not wholly subdued, but were able to retain at least their acropolis (Jdg_1:21), and were not entirely dispossessed of it till the time of David (2 Samuel 5). Being situated on the border (Jos_15:8; Jos_18:16), between Judah and Benjamin, to either of which it is indifferently assigned (Jos_15:63; Jos_18:28; Jdg_1:21), it was only at this late date secured to the actual territory of David's tribe (1 Chronicles 11). He made it the capital of his kingdom instead of Hebron (Ewald, Isr. Gesch. 2, 583), but did not wholly expel the natives (1Ki_9:20). By that time the inveteracy of the enmity between the Hebrews and such of the original inhabitants as remained in the land had much abated, and the rights of private property were respected by the conquerors. This we discover from the fact that the site on which the Temple afterwards stood belonged to a Jebusite named Araunah, from whom it was purchased by king David, who declined to accept it as a free gift from the owner (2 Samuel 244; 1 Chronicles 21). This afterwards became the site of Solomon's Temple (2Ch_3:1). It appears that the Jebusites subsisted under his reign in the state. of tributaries or slaves (2Ch_8:7) and even so continued to the times of the return from Babylon (Ezr_9:1). SEE JERUSALEM.
The name “Jebusite” is sometimes put for the city itself inhabited by them (i. q. “city of the Jebusite,” Jdg_19:11), as in Jos_15:8; Jos_18:16; also poetically, in later times, for its successor, Jerusalem (Zec_9:7). SEE JEBUS.
“In the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, the ashes of Barnabas, after his martyrdom in Cyprus, are said to have been buried in a cave where the race of the Jebusites formerly dwelt, and previous to this is mentioned the arrival in the island of a pious Jebusite, a kinsman of Nero (Act. Apost. Apocr p. 72,73, ed Tisch.)”