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JABESH-GILEAD

(Heb. yāḇêš gilʿāḏ)
(also JABESH)

A city in northwest Gilead. It was probably located along the Wadi Yâbis, although no one site has yet been conclusively identified as Jabesh-gilead (“the dry [place] of Gilead”).

The inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead were important heroic, if sometimes tragic, players in three biblical stories placed in the setting of early Israel. In Judg. 21 the male inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead were murdered so their virgin girls could be given to the Benjaminites because the other Israelite tribes had sworn, due to the Benjaminites’ support for those who had committed a hideous crime, not to let the Benjaminites marry daughters from their tribes (Judg. 20:12, 13; 21:1). This event was also a judgment against the Jabesh-gileadites for their absence at the Israelite battles with the Benjaminites (Judg. 20:1ff.). In this passive way (i.e., by their death), the citizens of Jabesh-gilead were said to have saved the tribe of Benjamin from extinction (Judg. 21:17).

In a similar manner Jabesh-gilead was responsible for Saul’s being accepted as king. Nahash, an Ammonite king, besieged Jabesh-gilead (1 Sam. 11:1-3). When Saul heard of the city’s dilemma he rallied an Israelite army, which rescued Jabesh-gilead (1 Sam. 11:11); the victory was so inspiring that the Israelites immediately confirmed Saul as king (vv. 12-15). To grasp the fullness of the story, the tragedy of the Benjaminites, recorded in Judg. 20, , must be remembered. There Jabesh-gilead saved the Benjaminites; in the victory over Nahash, Saul, a Benjaminite, saved Jabesh-gilead. As in the earlier story, the Jabesh-gileadites now have a passive part in making Saul king, when he had previously been rejected (1 Sam. 10:27; 11:7).

Finally, Jabesh-gilead played a role in rescuing the body of Saul. When the Philistines defeated Saul and his sons, they took their bodies and hung them from the wall of the city of Beth-shan (1 Sam. 31:10). The Jabesh-gileadites retrieved Saul’s and his sons’ bodies, burned them, and then buried their bones (1 Sam. 31:13; 1 Chr. 10:11-12). Here the tables are turned. The Jabesh-gileadites actively save Saul, while his death and their actions cause them to be blessed by the new king (2 Sam. 2:5).

Bibliography. N. Glueck, “Jabesh-Gilead,” BASOR 89 (1943): 2-6; L. G. Herr, “The Amman Airport Structure and the Geopolitics of Ancient Transjordan,” BA 46 (1983): 223-29.

David Merling

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JABESH-GILEAD

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)