Tubal
Tubal is a region mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Syria in modern-day Syria. Known today as Tabal. It appears across 5 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Tubal first appears in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10:2, listed as a son of Japheth and thus a grandson of Noah. This genealogical placement identifies Tubal as an ancestor of a people group inhabiting the northern regions relative to ancient Israel. The name recurs in the prophetic literature, notably in Ezekiel, where Tubal is frequently paired with Meshech as a distant, powerful northern nation. Ezekiel 27:13 describes Tubal and Meshech as trading partners of Tyre, exchanging human beings and bronze vessels. In Ezekiel 38–39, Tubal appears among the coalition led by Gog of the land of Magog, portrayed as a formidable enemy gathering against restored Israel in an eschatological context. Isaiah 66:19 also names Tubal among the distant nations to whom God's glory will be proclaimed. Throughout Scripture, Tubal represents the edges of the known world, a semi-mythological northern frontier beyond which God's sovereign purposes would nonetheless extend in the fullness of redemptive history.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Tubal is most plausibly identified with the ancient Neo-Hittite state of Tabal, located in south-central Anatolia in modern-day Turkey, though some older scholarship associated it with regions further east. Assyrian records from the 9th to 7th centuries BC frequently mention Tabal as a significant political entity bordering the Assyrian sphere. The coordinates given (near Gaziantep, Syria) reflect a southeastern Anatolian placement. Archaeological work in the region has revealed Iron Age settlements and inscriptions consistent with the Tabal kingdom. The pairing with Meshech in biblical texts aligns with Assyrian records listing these two peoples together as northwestern frontier peoples.
Verse Appearances (5)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]