Jotbah
Jot'bah (Heb. Yotbah', יָטבָה, goodness; Sept. Ι᾿τέβα v.r. Ι᾿εταχά, Josephus Ι᾿ταβάτη, Ant. 10, 3, 2), a town, probably of Judah, the residence of Haruz, whose daughter Meshullemeth became the wife of king Manasseh and mother of Amon (2Ki 21:19). M. de Saulcy (Narrat. 1, 94, note) suggests its identity with Yitma, a village almost in ruins on the north side of the valley (wady Ribah), north of Lebonah and south of Nablus (Robinson's Researches, 2, 92); but this would lie within the precincts of the late kingdom of Israel It is usually identified with Jotbath or Jotbatha of the Exode (Nu 23:30,30; De 10:7), as the names are essentially the same in the Heb.; but the latter is spoken of only as a region, not an inhabited town, and is out of the bounds of the Jewish monarchy. "The Arabic equivalent for Jotbah is et-Taiyib, or et-Taiyibeh, and no less than three sites of this name are met with in modern Palestine. One is considerably south of Hebron (Robinson, Bib. Res. 2, 472); another to the west of that city (ib. p. 427-429); and the third is north of Jerusalem, in the country of Benjamin. This last is most likely to answer to Jotbah, for the two first named places are very insignificant, and never can have been of much importance; whereas this is described by Dr. Robinson as crowning a conspicuous hill, skirted by fertile basins of some breadth,... full of gardens of olives and fig trees. The remarkable position (he adds) would not probably have been left unoccupied in ancient times (Biblic. Res. 2, 121, 124). In a subsequent visit to the place he was struck both with the depth and quality of the soil, which were more than one would anticipate ill so rocky a region (Later Bib. Res. p. 290). These extracts explain while they justify the signification 'goodness,' which belongs both to Jotbah and Taivibeh" Against this identification, however, there lie two not very strong objections, namely, its distance from Jerusalem, and the fact of the probable coincidence of this site with that of Ophrah. (q.v.).
