Jabesh
/ˈdʒeɪ.bɛʃ/noun
A biblical place-name, most famously Jabesh-Gilead, an ancient settlement east of the Jordan River.
Did you know?After the Ammonites mutilated the men of Jabesh-Gilead, Saul’s forces attacked at dawn, and later the town’s people secretly recovered and buried Saul’s body.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Semitic
Proto-Semitic
*y-b-š
“A Semitic root associated with being dry or dried out.”
Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew
יָבֵשׁ (yāvēsh)
“Dry; withered.”
Iron Age
Hebrew
יַבֵּשׁ גִּלְעָד (Yabesh-Gilead)
“Jabesh of Gilead, a settlement identified with the biblical town east of the Jordan.”
3rd–2nd Century BCE
Greek
Ἰαβής (Iabēs)
“The Septuagint transliteration of the place-name Jabesh.”
4th–5th Century CE
Latin
Iabes
“The Latin biblical form of Jabesh.”
Modern English
English
Jabesh
“The conventional English form of the biblical place-name.”