GEBAL

(Geʹbal), Gebalites (Geʹbal·ites).

1. Gebal, a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean seacoast, is identified with modern Jebeil, twenty miles (32.2 kilometers) N of Beirut. Historians consider Gebal, the Byblos of the Greeks, to be one of the oldest cities of the Near East.

Jehovah included “the land of the Gebalites” among those regions yet to be taken by Israel in Joshua’s day. (Josh. 13:1-5) Critics have picked on this as an inconsistency, since the city of Gebal was far N of Israel and apparently never came under Israelite domination. Certain scholars have suggested that the Hebrew text may be damaged at this verse and consider that the account anciently read “the land adjoining Lebanon,” or ‘as far as the border of the Gebalites.’ However, it should also be observed that Jehovah’s promises in Joshua 13:2-7 were conditional. Thus Israel never may have gained Gebal because of its own disobedience.—Compare Joshua 23:12, 13.

Gebalites helped Solomon in the eleventh century B.C.E. with the preparation of the materials for the temple construction. (1 Ki. 5:18) Jehovah lists the “old men of Gebal” among those who assisted in maintaining ancient Tyre’s commercial might and glory.—Ezek. 27:9.

2. A different Gebal is listed with Ammon and Amalek in Psalm 83:7, and thus apparently lay S or E of the Dead Sea. Although its exact location is unknown, some scholars place it in the vicinity of Petra, about sixty-three miles (101.4 kilometers) N of the Gulf of Aqabah.

[Picture on page 631]

Modern Jebeil (Gebal) on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea