Jabesh, Jabesh-gilead

Jay´bish, jay´-bish-gil´ee-uhd; Heb., “dried”

1 The father of King Shallum of Israel (2Kgs 15:10; 2Kgs 13-14:10). The name may, however, represent a place rather than a person, meaning that Shallum’s family lived at Jabesh. 2 A town east of the Jordan River, frequently called Jabesh-gilead. The city first appears in Israelite history in the story of how all the men and married women were killed because no one from the town had come to the assembly at Mizpah (Judg 21:8-15). Later, when Nahash the Ammonite threatened to gouge out the right eye of every man in Jabesh-gilead, Saul came to their rescue (1Sam 11). The people of Jabesh-gilead remained profoundly grateful and, some years later, recovered the bodies of Saul and his sons, which had been triumphantly hung on the walls of Beth-shan by the Philistines.