Tabbath
Tabbath is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Transjordan in modern-day Israel. Known today as Ras Abu Tabat. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Tabbath appears once in the biblical narrative, in Judges 7:22, as a geographical marker in the account of Gideon's miraculous rout of the Midianite army. After Gideon's famous night attack with his three hundred men — blowing trumpets, smashing jars, and brandishing torches while shouting "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!" (Judges 7:20) — the Midianite camp erupted in confusion and panic, with the soldiers turning their swords on one another. The fleeing enemy host ran "to Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah by Tabbath." Tabbath thus marks the extent of the Midianite flight through the Jordan Valley — a geographical anchor in Luke's precise account of Israel's great deliverance. The victory at Midian was considered paradigmatic of God's saving power through small and unlikely means (cf. Isaiah 9:4; Psalm 83:9), and the landscape through which the enemy fled — including Tabbath — became embedded in Israel's memory of divine intervention. The episode underscores the theological conviction running through Judges that Israel's security derived not from military strength but from obedient trust in the God who fights for his people.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Tabbath is tentatively identified with Ras Abu Tabat, a site in the central Jordan Valley east of the Jezreel plain, in the vicinity of the Jabbok River confluence region. The identification rests primarily on phonological similarity between the ancient name and the modern toponym, combined with its geographical fit along the Jordan Valley corridor through which the Midianites would have fled after Gideon's attack. The site has not been the subject of major archaeological excavation. Surface survey work in the central Jordan Valley has documented Bronze Age and Iron Age occupation at various locations consistent with the settlement patterns implied by the Judges narrative. The Jordan Valley's rich archaeological landscape includes numerous tells awaiting systematic investigation.
Verse Appearances (1)
Judg
Sources: ISBE Encyclopedia · OpenBible Geocoding (CC BY) · Pleiades Gazetteer View all →