Zeboïm

Zebo'ïm a name which occurs in two distinct forms in the original, denoting different localities.

1. (Heb. Tseboini', צבֹאַים. gazelles, as often, Ho 11:8; or shorter, Tseboïm', צַבֹיַם [marg. צבוֹיַם], Ge 10:19; or צבֹיַים [marg.

צַבוֹיַם], 14:2, 8 [A.V. "Zeboïm"]; De 29:23; Sept. Σεβωείμ v.r. Σεβοείμ; Vulg. Zeboïm), one of the five cities destroyed by divine visitation in the vale of Siddim (Ho 11:8), mentioned immediately after Admah (Ge 10:19; De 29:23), and ruled over by a separate king, Shemeber (Ge 14:2,8). De Saulcy finds the site of Zeboïm in the Talda Sebaan, a name which he reports as attached to extensive ruins on the high ground between the Dead Sea and Kerak (Dead Sea, 1, 383); but the position as well as the elevation is improbable, and the ancient spot is most likely beneath the water of the southern bay of the sea. SEE SODOM; SEE ZOAR.

2. (Heb. with the art. hats-Tseboïm', הִצַּבֹעַים, the hyenas; Sept. Ζαμαείν v.r. Σαβίμ, Σεβοείμ, etc.; Vulg. Seboimn), the name of a valley (גֵּי), i.e. a ravine or gorge, apparently east of Michmash, mentioned in 1Sa 13:18, where it is described with a curious minuteness, which is unfortunately no longer intelligible. The road running from Michmash to the east is specified as "the road of the border that looketh to the ravine of Zeboim towards the wilderness." The wilderness (midbar) is no doubt the district of uncultivated mountaintops and sides which lies between the central district of Benjamin and the Jordan valley, and here apparently the ravine of Zeboim should be sought. In that very district there is a wild gorge, bearing the name of Shuk ed-Duba, "ravine of the hyena," up which runs the path from Jericho to Mukhmas (Conder, Tent Work in Palest. 3, 16). It is represented on the new Ordnance Map as running for a short distance N.E. of Ain Dûk. The same place or a town adjacent seems to be mentioned in Ne 11:34 (where it occurs without the art. prefixed)-confounding it, nevertheless, with the Zeboïm of Genesis-as occupied after the Captivity. Rabbi Schwarz, however, maintains that the two places are different, and, while locating the valley as above (Palest. p. 156), he identifies the Zeboïm of Nehemiah with "the village Zuba, situated on .a high mount, three English miles west of Jerusalem" (ibid. p. 134). He adds," In [the Talmudical tract] Challah, 4:10 is mentioned the Mount. Zeboim." He doubtless refers to the ruined village Soba, about six miles west of Jerusalem, near Eshtaol; but this has little probability.