ZO'BAH (ARAM-ZOBAH): An Aramean kingdom or people. The fundamental passage is
II Sam. x. 6-15,
which relates to the war against the Am.
monitic Hanun waged by David, in which Syrians
of Beth-rehob, Zobah, and of "king Maacah" were
engaged. These peoples
were supposed to be neighbors of the Ammonites, and this fits with Bethrehob, located by Schumacher at
Ri13ab, twentyfive miles east of `Ajlun and thirty-one north of
Rabbath Amnion, the Ammonite capital. Maacah
lay between Hermon on the north and Geshur on
the south, and between Bashan on the east and the
upper Jordan on the west, north of the Yarmuk.
Between these two Zobah is mentioned, and its position is likely to be between them, i.e., in eastern
`Ajlun toward the upper Yarmuk. From the passage in question, no closer definition of the position
is possible, and no place of like name has yet been
found, since the village Suf, seven miles e. of
the village of `Ajlun and nineteen w. of Rihab, hardly fits
the case. To the district doubtless . belonged the
Hamath-zobah of II Chron, viii. 3, which is to be distinguished from "Hamath the great" of
Amos vi. 2
on the Orontes; the former is the city of
II Sam. viii. 9-10.
Of David's campaign against the Arameans east of the Jordan
II Sam. x. 6
sqq. testifies, but of his war far to the north in the valley of the Upper Orontes nothing sure is known. Other passages
speak of a king of Zobah-Hadarezer in
II Sam. x. 15-19a;
I Chron. xix. 16-19,
who summoned the Arameans from beyond the Euphrates to the war
and had a number of kings under him. Since
I Chron. xix. 6
knows of Aram-naharain (i.e., Arameans of the banks of the Euphrates) and Maacah
and Zobah being in a confederacy, and Ps. Ix., title,
speaks of Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah as opponents of David, a
great Aramean kingdom in Syria east of the Orontes used to be assumed. But
this is questionable, since David does not appear to
have extended his operations beyond Damascus.
Assyrian records give no trace of such a kingdom.
Moreover, the expression "beyond the river"
(II Sam. x. 16)
is late and is from the point of
view of Assyria, and verses 15-19a belong also to
late tradition; the entire chapter, indeed, is redactorial. Verse 17 suggests
that the region (immediately) east of the Jordan was the region in
question. An Assyrian inscription from the time
of Asshurbanipal mentions a ' ~ubiti or Zupiti
south of Damascus, the site of which is not determined, but which Winckler and Schrader identify with Zobah. The position
indicated by the cuneiform inscription would agree with the probable
location as suggested by the date given above. See
Hadadezer.
(H. Guthe.)
Bibliography:
H. Winckler, Altorientai%ache Forschungen,
i. 4x6-468, Letpale, 1893; idem, Geschichte Israels, i. 138
144, ib. 1896; H.
Guthe, Geschichte des Voikea Israel, 2d
ad., pp. 102-103,
123, Ttibingea, 1904; G. Schumacher,
in the Mittheilungen and Naehr%ehten des deutschen Palita
Mnaoereina, 1800, pp. 71 sqq.; Schrader, SAT, pp. 60
61, 97, 136; DB, iv. 987; EB, iv. 6425-28.
