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Taanach – Taberah
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Taanach
ta'-nak (ta`anakh, or ta`nakh; the Septuagint Tanach, with many variants): A royal city of the Canaanites, the king of which was slain by Joshua (12:21). It was within the boundaries of the portion of Issachar, but was one of the cities reckoned to Manasseh (; ), and assigned to the Kohathite Levites (). The Canaanites were not driven out; only at a later time they were set to taskwork ( f). Here the great battle was fought when the defeat of Sisera broke the power of the oppressor Jabin (). It was in the administrative district of Baana ben Ahilud (). The name appears in the list of Thothmes III at Karnak; and Shishak records his plundering of Taanach when he invaded Palestine under Jeroboam I (compare f). Eusebius says in Onomasticon that it is a very large village, 3 miles from Legio. it is represented by the modern Ta`annek, which stands on a hill at the southwestern edge of the plain of Esdraelon. Megiddo (Tell el-Mutesellim) lies 5 miles to the Northwest. These two places are almost invariably named together. The great highway for traffic, commercial and military, from Babylon and Egypt, ran between them. They were therefore of high strategic importance. Excavations were recently conducted on the site by Professor Sellin, and a series of valuable and deeply interesting discoveries were made, shedding light upon the social and religious life and practices of the inhabitants down to the 1st century BC, through a period of nearly 2,000 years. The Canaanites were the earliest occupants. In accordance with Biblical history, "there is no evidence of a break or abrupt change in the civilization between the Canaanite and the Israelite occupation of Taanach; the excavations Show rather gradual development. The Canaanites will have gradually assimilated the Israelites drawn to them from the villages in the plain" (Driver, Schweich Lectures, 1908, 84). In the work just cited Driver gives an admirable summary of the results obtained by Professor Sellin. In his book on the Religion of Ancient Palestine, Professor Stanley A. Cook has shown, in short compass, what excellent use may be made of the results thus furnished.
W. Ewing
Taanath-Shiloh
ta'-a-nath-shi'-lo (ta'-anath shiloh; Codex Vaticanus Thenasa kai Sellesa, Tenathselo): A town on the border of the territory of Ephraim named between Michmethath and Janoah (). According to Eusebius, Onomasticon (s.v. "Thena") it lay about 10 Roman miles East of Neapolis, on the road to the Jordan. Ptolemy speaks of Thena, probably the same place, as a town in Samaria (). It may be identified with Ta`na, a village about 7 miles Southeast of Nablus. Yanun, the ancient Janoah, lies 2 miles to the South. A Roman road from Neapolis to the Jordan valley passed this way. At Ta`na there are "foundations, caves, cisterns and rockcut tombs" (PEFM, II, 245). This identification being quite satisfactory, the Talmudic notion that Taanath-shiloh was the same place as Shiloh may be dismissed (Jerusalem Talmud, Meghillah, i).
W. Ewing
Tabaoth, Tabbaoth
ta-ba'-oth, tab'-a-oth (tabba`oth; Tabaoth, Taboth): The name of a family of temple-servants (1 Esdras 5:29) = "Tabbaoth" (Hebrew: Tabba`oth) of ; ; perhaps called after the name of a place.
Compare TABBATH.
Tabbath
tab'-ath (Tabbath; Codex Vaticanus Tabath; Gabath): A place named after Abel-meholah in the account of the Midianite flight before Gideon (). It must therefore have been a place in the Jordan valley to the East of Beth-shan. No trace of the name has yet been recovered.
Tabeel
ta'-be-el: A name meaning "good is God," borne by two persons in the Old Testament (, the King James Version, "Tabeal").
(1) The father of the man whom the kings of Israel and Damascus planned to place upon the throne of Judah (). The form of the name Tabhe'el, suggests that he was a Syrian; his son evidently was a tool of Rezin, king of Damascus. The name is vocalized so as to read Tebeal (Tabhe'al), which might be translated "good for nothing," though some explain it as a pausal form, with the ordinary meaning. The change, probably due to a desire to express contempt, is very slight in Hebrew.
(2) A Persian official in Samaria (Tabhe'el) (). All that is known of him is that he joined with other officials in sending a letter to Artaxerxes for the purpose of hindering the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.
F. C. Eiselen
Tabellius
ta-bel'-i-us (Tabellios): One of the Persian officials in Samaria who wrote a letter to Artaxerxes which caused the rebuilding of Jerusalem to be stopped for a time (1 Esdras 2:16) = "Tabeel" of .
Taber
ta'-ber (taphaph, "to strike a timbrel" (()): The word is used only once in the King James Version, namely, in the exceedingly graphic account of the capture of Nineveh given in . The queen (perhaps the city personified) is dishonored and led into ignominious captivity, followed by a mourning retinue of "maids of honor" who taber upon, that is, beat violently, their breasts. Such drumming on the breasts was a gesture indicative of great grief ().
Taberah
tab'-e-ra, ta-be'-ra (tabh`erah, "burning"): A wilderness camp of the Israelites, the site of which is unidentified. Here, it is recorded, the people complained against Yahweh, who destroyed many of them by fire. This is the origin of the name (; ).
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (1915). Public domain. Text from the CrossWire Bible Society.