IABES. – Name of two cities and two figures of the Old Testament.
1. Transjordanian Israelite city, commonly called I
Galaad (Iudc. 21, 8. 10. 12. 41; I Sam. 11, 1. 9; 31, 11; II Sam. 2, 4. 5; 21, 12; I Par. 10, 11), sometimes simply I. (I Sam. 11, 3. 5. 18 etc.).An expeditionary force of 12,000 Israelites massacred its inhabitants as punishment for their failure to participate in the war against the tribe of Benjamin, provoked by the abominable lust of Gabaa (Iudc. 21, 8-14). The 400 virgins who were spared were given as wives to the surviving Benjaminites. Besieged by Naas, king of the Ammonites, it was liberated by Saul (I Sam. 11, 1-11). Later, the inhabitants of I. considered it their duty promptly to retrieve the corpse of the latter, who had been decapitated and hung by the Philistines on the walls of Bethsan, and then to cremate and bury it together with those of his sons, beneath a tree well known to I. (I Sam. 31, 13; I Par. 10, 12).
It was one night’s journey from Bethsan. St. Girolamo (Onom., 110, 11 sqq., 268) places it approximately 6 miles from Pella, on the mountain toward Gerasa. Many identify it with ed-Dejr, imposing ruins near Halāwah, on the Wādi Jabis, 12 km. from Fahil; N. Glueck proposes Tell el-Meqbereh, at the mouth of the Wādi Jabis.
2. Southern city of Judah, home of the families of the scribes (sōphērim) descended from Hammat (the Vulgate translates “de Calore”), progenitor of the Rechabites (v.), of the lineage of the Kenites (I Par. 2, 55). It has not yet been identified.
3. Father of Sellum, king of Israel (II Reg. 15, 10. 13. 14).
4. Descendant of Judah (I Par. 4, 9-10).