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Bible Dictionaries
Riblah
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or 1. A landmark on the eastern border of Israel (Numbers 34:11), between Shepham and the sea of Cinneroth, on the "E. side of the spring." Probably, without the vowel points and the final -ah of motion towards, the true name is Ηarbel "the Mount of Bel" or "Baal". Judges 3:3, "Ηar-Βaal-Ηermon ", Septuagint reads Αr-bela , which confirms Harbel; the summit of Hermon, the southernmost and highest peak of Antilibanus, 10,000 ft. high, overtopping every mountain in Palestine.
The ruins of a Baal sanctuary still remain on it. However, "go down from Shepham to Riblah" seemingly implies Riblah was lower; therefore Riblah was probably one of the many sanctuaries with which the sides, as well as the summit, of Hermon were covered. The landmark of Judges 3:3 would be unlikely to he omitted in Numbers 34:11. The "spring" or "fountain" (Αin ), E. of which was Riblah, was probably, as Jerome and the later targums understood it, the fountain of the Jordan. The two most celebrated sources of Jordan, Daphne and Paneas, are in the plain at the S.W. foot of Hermon; streams from the western slopes of the mountain feed the longest branch of the river.
2. Riblah or Riblathah in the land of Hamath, on the high road between Palestine and Babylon, where the Babylonian kings remained in directing the operations of their armies in Palestine and Phoenicia; where Jehoahaz was put in chains by Pharaoh Necho (2 Kings 23:33), and Zedekiah, after seeing his sons slain, had his own eyes put out (Jeremiah 39:5-7; literally, Jeremiah 39:9-10), and other leading captives were slain, probably by the Assyrian death of impaling (Jeremiah 39:24; Jeremiah 39:27), as depicted on the monuments.
Still called Ribleh, on the right bank of the Orontes (Asy), 30 miles N.E. of Baalbek; consisting of 40 or 50 houses and the remains of a quadrangular building. In the midst of a vast and fertile plain, stretching in all directions save S.W., and on a mountain stream; an admirable encampment for the Egyptian and Babylonian hosts. The curious Κamoa el Ηermel is visible from Riblah, a pyramidal top resting on a quadrilateral building in two stories. It is on a high mound several miles higher up the Orontes than Riblah. The lower story has figures of dogs, stags, and hunting instruments. From Riblah the roads were open by the Euphrates to Nineveh, or by Palmyra to Babylon, by the S. of Lebanon and the coast to Palestine and Egypt, or through the Bekaa and Jordan valley to the center of Palestine.
These files are public domain.
Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Riblah'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/r/riblah.html. 1949.
