Jabin
Ja'bin (Heb. Yabin', יָבַין, discerner; Sept. Ι᾿αβίς [v.r. Ι᾿αβίν, but Ι᾿αβείν in Ps 83:9], Josephus Ι᾿αβῖνος, Ant. 5, 5, ), the name of two kings of the Canaanitish city Hazor. SEE HAZOR. It was possibly a royal title, like Agag among the Amalekites and Abimelech among the Philistines.
1. A king of Hazor, and one of the most powerful of all the princes who reigned in Canaan when it was invaded by the Israelites (Jos 11:1-14). His dominion seems to have extended over all, the north part of the country; and after the ruin of the league formed against the Hebrews in the south by Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem, he assembled his tributaries near the waters of Merom (the Lake Huleh), and called all the people to arms. This coalition was destroyed, as the one in the south had been, and Jabin himself perished in the sack of Hazor, his capital, B.C. cir. 1615. This prince was the last powerful enemy with whom Joshua combated, and his overthrow seems to have been regarded as the crowning act in the conquest of the Promised Land, leaving only the Anakim in the mountains of Judah and Ephraim to be dispossessed in detail (Jos 11:233; comp. 14:6-15).
2. Another king of Hazor. and probably descended from the preceding (Jg 4:2-3), with whom some (Maurer, Comment. on Joshua 11; Hervey, Genealogies, p. 228) have confounded him (see Havernick, Einleit. II, i, 53; Keil, on Joshua 11:10-15). It appears that during one of the servitudes of the Israelites, probably, when they lay under the yoke of Cushan or Eglon, the:kingdom of Hazor was reconstructed. The narrative gives to this second Jabin even the title of "king of Canaan;" and this, with the possession of 900 iron-armed warchariots, implies unusual power and extent of dominion. The iniquities of the Israelites having lost them the divine protection, Jabin gained the mastery over them; and, stimulated by the memory of ancient hostilities, oppressed them heavily for twenty years, B.C. 14291409. From this thraldom they were relieved by the great victory won by Barak in the plain of Esdraelon over the hosts of Jabin, commanded by Sisera, one of the most renowned generals of those times (Jg 4:10-16). SEE SISERA. The well-compacted power of the king of Hazor was not yet, however, entirely broken. The war was still prolonged for a time, but-ended in the entire ruin of Jabin, and the subjugation of his territories by the Israelites (Jg 4:24). This is the Jabin whose name occurs in Ps 83:10. SEE HAZOR.
