Riblah (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. (.1^2-!, once, Jer 52'», np^nn ; LXX 2 K 25=' 'Pe^XaSd, elsewhere Ae^Xadd, and other corrupt forms). — The name of a place in the ' land of Pamath,' now Ribleh, in the Bekii'a, or broad vale between the two ranges of Lebanon and Hermon, on the right bank of the Orontes, about 100 miles N.N.E. of Dan, 05 mUes N. of Damascus, and 50 miles S.S.W. of Hamath (which see). It was at Riblah that Pharaoh-neeoh, three months after his defeat of Josiah at Megiddo (B.C. G08), in some way obtained the presence of his successor, Jehoahaz, and threw him into chains that he nii;;lit no longer reign in Jerusalem (2 K 23^^). Riblah is also mentioned as the place which, at the close of the sie^e of Jerusalem (B.C. 58G), was Nebuchad- nezzar's headquarters, and to which Zedekiah, and other prisoners taken out of the captured city, were brought for punishment (2 K 25°'- = Jor39»-'' = Jer52»'-; 2K 25-"- =' = Jer 52=«-'"). Riblah is now nothing more than a 'miserable' village of 40-50 houses (Rob. BRF iii. 543) ; but Robinson {ib. p. 545) points out how, from its situation, on the banks of a mountain stream, and in the middle of a vast and fertile plain, and also on the great roa<l leading from Egypt and Palestine to BabyUm, it was a suitable resting-place, whether for the army of Necoh, who had designs on Babylon, or for Nebuch., wliile watching the operations that were taking place in Judah. See, further, on the modern Ritileh, Sachau, Reise in Syrlen (1883), 55-57. ' Riblah ' is likewise read by most modern scholars (Ges., Ew., Smend, Cornill, etc.), with 4 MSS, in Ezk & for ' Diblath ' (nip^Di i;-;-?-) : 'I will make the land desolate from tlie wilderness (on the S. of Judah) to Hiblah (in the far North),' the expression being regarded as a designation of the whcde extent of Palestine, to its ideal limits, and Riblah being perhaj)S mentioned instead of the usual 'entering in of tlamath' (Nu 34", 2 K 14-^, Am 6", Ezk 47-° al.), on account of its having become prominent at the time (B.C. 592 — see Ezk V). If the ' approach to l,Iamath ' is rightly placed at the N. end of the broad vale between Lebanon and Anti-Libanus, where, as the traveller from the S. approaches Riblah, he finds himself entering a new district, and sees the country towards yanmth open out before him (see esp. van de Velde, Aarra- tivc, 1854, ii. 470; and cf. Rob. liRP iii. 568; Moore, Jurhie.i, 80, 82; also Jos 13», Jg 3'), this reading will bo quite natural. Other scholars, however, doubt whether the Isr. territory can ever have been regarded as extending as far as the N. • ^Vhich impliea that the ' approach to Banioth ' wa» at noma distance from a place at the toot of Momit lltnnon. Tin o|>inion (Bob. iii. MO ; UamatiI, vol. il. p. UiKI") thot the expreii- sioii (lenotod the approocti to t^umatli, not fruiii the ti., but from the IIV(, is hordly probable (cf. Kcil on Nu »48). 270 EICHES RIDDLE end of Lebanon, and tliink the ' approach to 5amath ' must be supposed to have denoted, somewhat vaguely, a more S. part of the vale of Cccle-Syria (KeU and Dilliu. on Nu 34» ; Buhl, Geogr. 66, 110; notice Ueliob in Nu 13='): in this case Riblah is certainly a more N. point than would be expected; on the other hand, if the reading be not adopted, Diblath (RV 'Diblah') must be the name of a place otherwise unknown, which is liardly likely in such a connexion. 2. Nu 34" (n^;-!n, with the art. : LXX diri :^€ir(patmp Bi;\a for •i;?'!? cEift). One of tlie places mentioned on the (in parts) obscurely-defined ideal borders of the promised land, Nu 34^''^ It is described as being on the E. border, somewhere between ^a^ar-'enan— which (Ezk 47" 48') was on the ' border ' of the territory of Damascus, and was to be (Nu 34'"') at the N.E. corner of Israel's territory — and tlie Sea of Chinnereth {i.e. the Sea of Galilee). There is difficulty in determining the site ; for the places mentioned on the N. border of Israel, in both Nu 34'- and Ezk iV", are very uncertain ; and while some scholars (Robinson, Knob., Conder) think that this border m.ay be drawn (approximately) across the N. extremity of Lebanon (^Jazar-'enfin being then situated at one of the sources of the Orontes — either [Keil] the spring of Lebweh, 22 m. S.W. of Riblah 1 [Rob. iii. 532], or [Conder, Ileth and Moah^, 8, 11 f.] 'Ain el-"Asy, 11 m. S.W. of Riblah 1), others (Bahl, 60 f.; cf. Riblah 1) consider this to be too far N., and tliink that it should be drawn across the S. ex- tremity of Lebanon (Hazar-'enan being then either B.lnias itself, or el-5ad'r, 9 m. E. of it).* The Riblah of Nu 34" is, however, some place between 5a?ar-'enan and the Sea of Galilee ; so that upon none of these suppositions can it be identical with Riblah 1 (which is to the N. even of Ain el-'Asy). No Riblah in a suitable situation seems at present to be known. The suggestion (AVetzst. ; seeDillm.) to read (after LXX) 'to Harbel' (•^^31D) for 'to Riblah,' and to identify Harbel with Harmel (or Hormiil), a place about 8 miles S.W. of Riblah (see Sachau's map, or the one in Bad., Route 31), does not really lessen the difficulty of tlie verse. S. E. Driver.