Jabesh Gilead
야베스 길르앗
Judges 21:8 names it when the children of Israel ask who of the tribes of Israel did not come up to the LORD to Mizpah, and the text says, “Behold, no one came from Jabesh Gilead to the camp to the assembly.” At 21:9 there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there when the people were counted; at 21:10–12 the congregation sends twelve thousand of the most valiant men there, commanding them, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones”, and they find among its inhabitants four hundred young virgins who had not known man and bring them to the camp to Shiloh. At 21:14 Benjamin returns and is given the women who had been saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead, and there still aren’t enough for them. 1 Samuel 11:1 says Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead; at 11:3 the elders of Jabesh say, “Give us seven days, that we may send messengers to all the borders of Israel; and then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you”; and at 11:9–11 the messengers who came are told, “Tell the men of Jabesh Gilead, ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will be rescued.’”; the messengers come and tell the men of Jabesh, who are glad; and on the next day Saul puts the people in three companies, and they come into the middle of the camp in the morning watch, and strike the Ammonites until the heat of the day. 1 Samuel 31:11–13 says that when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there, took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Direct relationships 4
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Source-backed narrative relations; not independent historical verification. Legacy dates and coordinates are outside this review.
Collection & rightsSource evidence (6)
AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.
- 1CH 10:11–12, engwebp
11When all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,
12all the valiant men arose and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
- 1SA 11:1–3, engwebp
1Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.”
2Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On this condition I will make it with you, that all your right eyes be gouged out. I will make this dishonor all Israel.”
3The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days, that we may send messengers to all the borders of Israel; and then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.”
- 1SA 11:9–11, engwebp
9They said to the messengers who came, “Tell the men of Jabesh Gilead, ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will be rescued.’” The messengers came and told the men of Jabesh; and they were glad.
10Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you shall do with us all that seems good to you.”
11On the next day, Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the middle of the camp in the morning watch, and struck the Ammonites until the heat of the day. Those who remained were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.
- 1SA 31:11–13, engwebp
11When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
12all the valiant men arose, went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.
13They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
- JDG 21:8–12, engwebp
8They said, “What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn’t come up to the LORD to Mizpah?” Behold, no one came from Jabesh Gilead to the camp to the assembly.
9For when the people were counted, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there.
10The congregation sent twelve thousand of the most valiant men there, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones.
11This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain with a man.”
12They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
- JDG 21:13–15, engwebp
13The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.
14Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead. There still weren’t enough for them.
15The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
AI-assisted, human review pending, 2026-09-26
Machine comparison on 2026-10-07: the wording raised none of the 3 rules against the passages this entry cites. No person has read it.
Geographic sources & candidates
Matched to OpenBible.info’s “Jabesh-gilead” by name and 14 shared verses. The coordinate of its leading identification, Tell el Maqlub (confidence 698 of 1000), is adopted as a sourced approximation: not verified here, and not the place of any particular event. 1 other identification is listed too.
AI-assisted source review; human approval pending, 2026-09-29
- Tell el Maqlub
OpenBible.info confidence 698 of 1000 (current scholarship)
32.40237, 35.6823
OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, “Jabesh-gilead” (CC BY 4.0) - Tell Abu el Kharaz
OpenBible.info confidence 158 of 1000 (current scholarship)
32.39898, 35.59511
OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, “Jabesh-gilead” (CC BY 4.0)
Original editorial notes; linked source texts retain their own rights. Candidate lists are not exhaustive.
All 4 relationships: AI-assisted, human review pending
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Narrated location (4) — Twelve thousand men sent to Jabesh Gilead, and four hundred young virgins brought to the camp at Shiloh, Nahash the Ammonite encamps against Jabesh Gilead, The valiant men of Jabesh Gilead take the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan and bury their bones, The valiant men bury the bones of Saul and his sons under the oak in Jabesh, and fast seven days
A relationship with an event rests on the passages the event cites: each event’s page has them.
Verses tagged with this entry
Names in the World English Bible text that carry this entry’s tag. They are carried over from the tags on the Korean Revised Version, which are matched by name inside chapters that already have collected evidence, and a verse where the English says “he” carries none. All await human review. They are a separate list from the source passages above. An empty list does not mean the entry is absent from the text.
They said, “What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn’t come up to the LORD to Mizpah?” Behold, no one came from Jabesh Gilead to the camp to the assembly.
Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.”
all the valiant men arose, went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.
They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
all the valiant men arose and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
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[Bibliadatum entry report] Entry: Jabesh Gilead (place-jabesh-gilead) Address: https://bibliadatum.org/en/wiki/place/jabesh-gilead Current wording: Judges 21:8 names it when the children of Israel ask who of the tribes of Israel did not come up to the LORD to Mizpah, and the text says, “Behold, no one came from Jabesh Gilead to the camp to the assembly.” At 21:9 there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there when the people were counted; at 21:10–12 the congregation sends twelve thousand of the most valiant men there, commanding them, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones”, and they find among its inhabitants four hundred young virgins who had not known man and bring them to the camp to Shiloh. At 21:14 Benjamin returns and is given the women who had been saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead, and there still aren’t enough for them. 1 Samuel 11:1 says Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead; at 11:3 the elders of Jabesh say, “Give us seven days, that we may send messengers to all the borders of Israel; and then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you”; and at 11:9–11 the messengers who came are told, “Tell the men of Jabesh Gilead, ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will be rescued.’”; the messengers come and tell the men of Jabesh, who are glad; and on the next day Saul puts the people in three companies, and they come into the middle of the camp in the morning watch, and strike the Ammonites until the heat of the day. 1 Samuel 31:11–13 says that when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there, took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days. Cited evidence: 1CH 10:11–12, engwebp / 1SA 11:1–3, engwebp / 1SA 11:9–11, engwebp / 1SA 31:11–13, engwebp / JDG 21:8–12, engwebp / JDG 21:13–15, engwebp Review state: ai-assisted / human-review-pending What looks wrong: (not written yet) --- This collection records what the text says and does not settle interpretation. A report about a reading that divides opinion may be registered as an unresolved issue rather than corrected.