JABES. - Name of two cities and two figures of the Old Testament.

1. A Transjordanian Israelite city, commonly called Jabesh-Gilead (Judg. 21:8, 10, 12, 41; 1 Sam. 11:1, 9; 31:11; 2 Sam. 2:4, 5; 21:12; 1 Chron. 10:11), sometimes simply Jabesh (1 Sam. 11:3, 5, 18, etc.).

An expeditionary force of 12,000 Israelites exterminated its inhabitants as punishment for their failure to take part in the war against the tribe of Benjamin, provoked by the infamous lust of Gibeah (Judg. 21:8-14). The 400 virgins who were spared were given as wives to the surviving Benjaminites. Besieged by Nahash, king of the Ammonites, it was liberated by Saul (1 Sam. 11:1-11). Later, the inhabitants of Jabesh made it their duty promptly to recover the corpse of the latter, decapitated and hung by the Philistines on the walls of Beth-shan, and then to cremate it and bury it together with those of his sons, beneath a tree well known to Jabesh (1 Sam. 31:13; 1 Chron. 10:12).

It was a night's journey from Beth-shan. St. Jerome (Onom., 110, 11 ff., 268) places it about 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. A southern city of Judah, seat of the families of the scribes (sōphērim) descended from Hammath (the Vulgate translates "de Calore"), ancestor of the Rechabites (v.), of the stock of the Kenites (1 Chron. 2:55). It has not yet been identified.

3. Father of Shallum, king of Israel (2 Kings 15:10, 13, 14).

4. A descendant of Judah (1 Chron. 4:9-10).

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: F.-M. Abel, Exploration de la vallée du Jourdain, in Revue bibl., 8 (1919), pp. 208-36; id., Géographie de la Palestine, II, Paris 1938, p. 352; A. Legendre, s. v. in DB, II, coll. 1023-55; C. Steuernagel, Der 'Adschlün nach den Aufzeichnungen von G. Schumacher, Leipzig 1925-26, p. 156; N. Glueck, The river Jordan, being an illustrated account of earth's most storied river, London 1946, passim.

Bonaventura Mariani

@incollection{ec6_iabes, author = {Mariani, Bonaventura}, title = {Iabes}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {1521--1522}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/iabes} }

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