Nob was a priestly town in ancient Israel in the vicinity of Jerusalem. The town is mostly known as the site of a massacre described in the Bible where the town's Hebrew priests are massacred by Doeg the Edomite who acted on orders from King Saul. [1]
The town is situated in the southern portion of the land associated with the Tribe of Benjamin, and is identified within the village of Shuafat, to the north of Jerusalem. [2]
The site is largely identified by historical geographers as Bayt Nuba. It likely belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin, Jerusalem being at the border between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah.[ citation needed ]
The town is known for its mention in the Book of Samuel (chapters 21–22) as the site of a massacre of Hebrew priests. The general reading of the incident follows that David visits Nob while being pursued by Saul. David deceives the high priest Ahimelech, who replies in innocence to Saul interrogation. Saul then orders Doeg the Edomite to execute the priests of Nob. One interpretation follows that David was seeking the support of the ecclesiastical establishment as the nation's only counter-authority to the state. This reading of the text follows that since Nob was a city of priests, it would be an unlikely place for David to seek food and weapons in his flight from Saul. Priests may not be expected to have arms, and the food which locals might bring to them as offerings are ritually permitted to priests and their families only (designated as terumah). For this reason, some commentaries note that David partakes the showbread which actually is more sacred than the priestly food, but is not consecrated in the same status of terumah. Others interpret the story of David's arrival to Nob as an intentional act to eat the sacred showbread and to retrieve Goliath’s sword which was kept in Nob. These acts are performed to downplay the prestige of Saul. An alternate reading suggests that Ahimelech knowingly colluded with David. [1]
Aside from the incident in the Book of Samual, the town of Nob is mentioned in the Bible in connection with the Assyrian attack of Israel described in the Book of Isaiah (10:32), and in relation to the Jewish settlements after the Babylonian Exile listed in the Book of Nehemiah (11:33). [2]
In the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum (known as Pseudo-Philo), a first century work, the town of Nob is identified as the true location for the biblical incident of Levite's concubine, which takes place in the territory of the Tribe of Benjamin. [2]
Abiathar, in the Hebrew Bible, is a son of Ahimelech or Ahijah, High Priest at Nob, the fourth in descent from Eli and the last of Eli's House to be a High Priest.
The Book of Samuel is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books that constitute a theological history of the Israelites and that aim to explain God's law for Israel under the guidance of the prophets.
Saul was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered tribal society ruled by various judges to organized statehood.
Ahijah is a name of several biblical individuals:
Ahimelech was an Israeli priest and served as the grand priest of the town of Nob. In the Book of Samuel, he was described as the son of Ahitub and father of Abiathar, but described as the son of Abiathar in 2 Samuel 8:17 and in four places in 1 Chronicles. He descended from Aaron's son Ithamar and the High Priest of Israel Eli. In 1 Chronicles 18:16 his name is Abimelech according to the Masoretic Text, and is probably the same as Ahiah.
Kohen is the Hebrew word for "priest", used in reference to the Aaronic priesthood, also called Aaronites or Aaronides. They are traditionally believed and halakhically required to be of direct patrilineal descent from the biblical Aaron, brother of Moses, and thus belong to the Tribe of Levi.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle, also known as the Tent of the Congregation, was the portable earthly dwelling place of Yahweh used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instructed at Mount Sinai to construct and transport the tabernacle with the Israelites on their journey through the wilderness and their subsequent conquest of the Promised Land. After 440 years, Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem superseded it as the dwelling-place of God.
Pseudo-Philo is the name commonly used for the unknown, anonymous author of Biblical Antiquities. This text is also commonly known today under the Latin title Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, a title that is not found on the Latin manuscripts of Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities. Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities is preserved today in 18 complete and 3 fragmentary Latin manuscripts that date between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries CE. In addition, portions of Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities parallel material also found in the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 14th-century Hebrew composition. The Latin text of Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities circulated in some Latin collections of writings by Philo of Alexandria. Scholars have long recognized the pseudonymous character of the text now known as the Biblical Antiquities. Primary in this regard is a vastly differing approach to and use of the Jewish Scriptures than that of Philo of Alexandria. For the sake of convenience and due to the lack of a better option, scholars continue to follow the lead of Philo scholar Leopold Cohn in calling the author “Pseudo-Philo.”
Michmas was an Israelite and Jewish town located in the highlands north of Jerusalem. According to the Hebrew Bible, it belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin. It was the setting of the biblical Battle of Michmash, recounted in 1 Samuel 14. Michmas was inhabited during the Second Temple period, when, according to the Mishnah, its fine wheat was brought to the Temple.
Doeg was an Edomite, chief herdsman to Saul, King of Israel. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible book of First Samuel, chapters 21 and 22, where he is depicted as an antagonist of David responsible for the deaths of a large number of priests.
Showbread, in the King James Version: shewbread, in a biblical or Jewish context, refers to the cakes or loaves of bread which were always present, on a specially-dedicated table, in the Temple in Jerusalem as an offering to God. An alternative, and more appropriate, translation would be presence bread, since the Bible requires that the bread be constantly in the presence of God.
Achimelech may refer to:
Terumot is the sixth tractate of Seder Zeraim of the Mishnah and of the Jerusalem Talmud. This tractate discusses the laws of teruma, a gift of produce that an Israelite farmer was required to set aside and give to a kohen (priest). There were two kinds of terumot given to the priest: the regular heave-offering, known also as the terumah gedolah, which the Israelites were required to give to the priest from the produce of their fields; the other was the terumat ma'aser, namely, the gift that the Levites were required to put aside for the priests from the tithe which ordinary Israelites had been required to give to them.
Malchijah is a biblical name belonging to several persons mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and means "Yahweh is King" or "the king is Yahweh".
Psalm 52 is the 52nd psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 51. In Latin, it is known as "Quid gloriatur in malitia", It is described as a maskil, attributed to David, and is said to have been written "when Doeg the Edomite went and told Saul, and said to him, "David has gone to the house of Ahimelech". In this psalm, David criticises those who use their talents for evil.
1 Samuel 21 is the twenty-first chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains the account of David's escape from Saul's repeated attempts to kill him. This is within a section comprising 1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 5 which records the rise of David as the king of Israel.
1 Samuel 22 is the twenty-second chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains the account of David's escape from Saul's repeated attempts to kill him and the massacre of the priests in Nob. This is within a section comprising 1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 5 which records the rise of David as the king of Israel.
According to the Torah, the Tribe of Benjamin was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The tribe was descended from Benjamin, the youngest son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel. In the Samaritan Pentateuch the name appears as Binyamīm.
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