Zeboim

gazelles or roes.

(gazelles ).

1. One of the five cities of the "plain" or circle of Jordan. It is mentioned in ( Genesis 10:19 ; Genesis 14:2 Genesis 14:8 ; 29:23 ; Hosea 11:8 ) in each, of which passages it is either coupled with Admah or placed next it in the lists --perhaps represented by Talaa Sebaan , a name attached to extensive ruins on the high ground between the Dead Sea and Kerak . In ( Genesis 14:2 Genesis 14:8 ) the name is given more correctly in the Authorized Version ZEBOIIM.
2. The valley of Zeboim, a ravine or gorge, apparently east of Michmash, mentioned only in ( 1 Samuel 13:18 ) The road running from Michmash to the east is specified as "the road of the border that looketh to the ravine of Zeboim toward the wilderness." The wilderness is no doubt the district of uncultivated mountain tops and sides which lies between the central district of Benjamin and the Jordan valley. In that very district there is a wild gorge bearing the name of Shuk ed-Dubba , ravine of the hyena, "the exact equivalent of Ge hat-tseboim .

ZEBOIM

ze-bo'-im ((1) tsebho`im; Seboeim (Nehemiah 11:34); (2) ge ha-tsebho`im; Gai ten Samein (1 Samuel 13:18)):

(1) A Benjamite town mentioned as between HADID (which see) and NEBALLAT (which see), and therefore in the maritime plain near Lydda; the site is lost (Nehemiah 11:34).

(2) The Valley of Zeboim, "the valley of hyenas," one of three companies of the Philistines left their camp at Michmash and "turned the way of the border that looketh down upon the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness" (1 Samuel 13:18). There are several valleys with names derived from the hyena, so common in these parts. There is a small branch valley called Shakked dab`a, "ravine of the hyenas," North of the Wady kelt (Grove), a, Wady abu dab`a, "valley of the father of hyenas, which joins the Wady kelt from the South (Marti), and a large and well-known Wady dab`a, "valley of hyenas," which runs parallel with the Wady kelt, some 3 miles farther South, and ends at the Dead Sea. The first of these, which apparently leads to Mukhmas itself, seems the most probable. See Conder's Handbook, 241.

E. W. G. Masterman