A people of Canaan
Genesis includes the Jebusites among the descendants of Canaan, Noah's grandson (Genesis 10:15-16). In the Bible's family records, they belong among the peoples living in the land of Canaan before Israel entered it.
The Old Testament often names the Jebusites alongside other Canaanite groups. These accounts describe particular peoples and places in Israel's history. They do not give anyone permission to despise people of a different nation or background today. God's warnings to Israel focused on their covenant loyalty and the danger of being drawn into the worship of other gods (Deuteronomy 7:3-4).
And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite,
Jebus, later Jerusalem
The Jebusites' best-known home was Jebus, identified in David's story with Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:6). The city was a stronghold, and it remained associated with its Jebusite inhabitants after Israel had begun settling the land.
Joshua says that the children of Judah did not drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem, while Judges records Jebusites living with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem (Joshua 15:63; Judges 1:21). The passages show that Israel's settlement was not completed all at once. The Jebusites were still part of the city's life for generations.
David took the stronghold
After David became king over all Israel, he went against Jebus. The city appeared secure, but David captured the stronghold of Zion and settled there (2 Samuel 5:6-9). Jerusalem then became the centre of his kingdom.
That change matters. Jerusalem was not simply an Israelite town from the beginning. Scripture remembers its Jebusite past even as it tells how David established his rule there. Later biblical history would connect the city with David's family, Israel's worship, and God's promises.
Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David.
Araunah and the temple site
A Jebusite named Araunah appears near the end of David's reign. David sinned in ordering a census and then acknowledged his wrongdoing before God (2 Samuel 24:10). After a plague came upon Israel, the prophet Gad told David to build an altar at Araunah's threshing floor (2 Samuel 24:15-18).
Araunah offered David the site and what was needed for the offering, but David chose to pay for it rather than present an offering that had cost him nothing (2 Samuel 24:24-25). Chronicles calls the man Ornan and identifies that threshing floor on Mount Moriah as the place where Solomon built the temple (2 Chronicles 3:1). So the Jebusites remain woven into Jerusalem's story, both through the city itself and through this significant site of worship.
And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.