THUBAL (Hebr. Tùbhal; Septuagint Θοβέλ). — One of the sons of Iapheth in the ethnographic table, where he is mentioned between Iavan and Mosoch (Gen. 10:2).
The three names are again associated in Ezek. 27:13 as suppliers of slaves to the Phoenicians; T. and Iavan are mentioned in Is. 66:19 as typical distant, overseas peoples; but more often T. is associated with Mosoch: both form part of the eschatological army of Gog and Magog (Ezek. 38:2–3; 39:1); their destruction is foretold (ibid. 32:26).
The same association is observed in the names found in Assyrian texts, Tabal (Tabali, -um, -d) and Mulku (-i, -aja: cf. A. Jirku, Altor. Komm. zum Alt. Test., Leipzig 1923, p. 38), peoples who originally inhabited the northern course of the Euphrates, and in the classical names Τυβερμνοί and Μόργοι, located at various points between Syria and the Black Sea (Herodotus, III, 94; VIII, 78, etc.). Cicero likewise (Ad familiares, XV, 4) speaks of “Tiberani” as savages who lived near Cilicia. Giovanni Rinaldi