the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Diblathaim
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (Heb. Diblatha'yim, דַּבְלָתִיַם, two,cakes, (See DIBLAIM), probably so called from the shape of the city, on two low knolls), a place mentioned in the combined names ALMON-DIBLATHAIM (Numbers 33:46) and BETH- DIBLATHAIM (Jeremiah 48:22), which probably refer to the same city of Moab. Eusebius and, Jerome (Onomast. s.v. Ιεσσά, Jassa), in speaking of Jahaza, say, "it is still shown between Medaba and Deblatai (Δηβούς )." The name suggests an identity with the DIBLATH, or rather Diblah, of Ezekiel 6:14, the location of which the context does not altogether forbid, were it certain that this is the correct reading in that passage. As that place is spoken of as situated at the other extremity of the land from a "wilderness" or midbar, a term frequently used for the nomad country on the south and south-east of Palestine, it is natural to infer that Diblah was in the north. To this position Beth-diblathaim or Almon-diblathaim, in Moab, on the east of the Dead Sea, are obviously unsuitable; and, indeed, a place which, like Diblathaim, was on the extreme east border of Moab, and never included even in the allotments of Reuben or Gad, could hardly be chosen. as a landmark of the boundary of Israel. The only name in the north at all like it is RIBLAH (See RIBLAH) (q.v.), and the letters D (ד ) and R (ר ) are so much alike, and so frequently interchanged, owing to the carelessness of copyists, that there is a strong probability that Riblah is the right reading. The conjecture is due to Jerome (Comm, in loc.), but it has been endorsed by Michaelis, Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 312), and other scholars (see Davidson, Heb. Text, Ezekiel 6:14). Riblah, though an old town, is not heard of during the early and middle course of Jewish history, but shortly before the date of Ezekiel's prophecy it had started into a terrible prominence from its being the scene of the cruelties inflicted on the last king of Judah, and of the massacres of the priests and chief men of Jerusalem perpetrated there by order of the king of Babylon. e
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Diblathaim'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/d/diblathaim.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
