001_naman_co_481-497 13/02/15 11:21 Pagina 496 496 NADAV NA’AMAN sought to describe the reality in the Land of Canaan before it was conquered by the Israelites. It seems that in the time of the Deutero- nomistic movement, the memory of the ancient reality was vague, and the late authors accepted the history of David at “face value” and concluded that the Jebusites were a pre-Israelite ethnic group, similar to the other groups included in the list they formed. The post-exilic author of the story of the Outrage of Gibeah (Judges 19–20) was influenced by the way the Jebusites were de- picted in the history of David and their inclusion in the list of six or seven non-Israelite ethnic groups, but went one step beyond the conventional Deuteronomistic description. He explicitly described Jebus as a foreign, non-Israelite town where Israelites should avoid lodging even for a night (Judg 19,11-12). His designation of Jerusalem by the name Jebus and his reference to the Jebusites as a foreign, non-Israelite ethnic group indicate how little this late au- thor understood the reality of the early history of Israel. Contrary to these authors, the prophet Ezekiel was born to a priestly Jerusalemite family and was probably aware of the Ben- jaminite descent of the Jebusites. So when he emphasized the non- Yahwistic origin of the cult of Jerusalem he attributed it to the city’s Amorite “father” and Hittite “mother” (Ezek 16,3.45). In sum, the Jebusites were a West Semitic pastoral clan that in the course of the early Iron Age split into two segments, one settling in western Gilead and the other in the area of Jerusalem. Despite the split, the two segments kept their tribal solidarity and cooperated whenever military support was required. The Jebusites and their stronghold in Jerusalem were an important, nuclear component of the Kingdom of Saul. With David’s rise to power, the Jebusite stronghold was conquered and established as the conqueror’s capi- tal. The author of David’s history related the conquest in a biased manner, and his description deeply influenced the way the Jebusites were presented in late biblical historiography and maintained in the Israelite cultural memory. Historically, the Jebusites were probably absorbed within the tribe of Benjamin, and their later history is in- separable from that of the tribe and the neighbouring city of Jerusalem. Department of Jewish History Nadav NA’AMAN Tel Aviv University 69978 Israel