TÉL 'ABHIBH. - A center of Jewish deportees in Babylon (Ez. 3:15). The Hebrew term means “hill of the ear of grain,” alluding to the fertility of the soil.
It finds analogy in biblical toponymy (Tell Melah, “hill of salt,” and Tell Haráa, “hill of the plow”; Ezra 2:59; Neh. 7:61). Some Assyriologists (H. Winckler, Frd. Delitzsch), however, see in it an Akkadian designation (Til abúbi, “hill of the inundation”) with reference to land reclamation by means of irrigation canals. It is possible that this was the official name imposed by the Chaldeans, but that the Jews altered it somewhat as a sign of good wishes and hope for their colonizing activity. The site lay along the Chobar canal (Akkadian nár kabari, “great canal”), between Babylon and Nippur. Ezekiel made it a center of his prophetic mission.
The name does not occur elsewhere in the Bible. It was revived in modern times by Zionist colonies, which thus named the center that has now become the largest city of the State of Israel: Tel Aviv.