Nobah

Smith's Bible Dictionary

No'bah. (Barking). An Israelite warrior,  Numbers 32:42, who during the conquest of the territory on the east of Jordan, possessed himself of the town of Kenath, and the villages or hamlets dependent upon it, and gave them his own name. (B.C.1450).

For a certain period, after the establishment of the Israelite rule, the new name remained,  Judges 8:11, but it is not again heard of, and the original appellation, as is usual in such cases, appears to have recovered its hold, has since retained; for in the slightly-modified form of Kunawat , it is the name of the place to the present day.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Nobah 1 . The clan name of the Israelites who conquered the city of Kenath (wh. see). 2. A place named with Jogbehah in the account of Gideon’s pursuit of Zebah and Zalmunna (  Judges 8:11 ), possibly also in   Numbers 21:30 , where the Syr. reads ‘Nobah which is on the desert,’ instead of ‘ Nophah which reacheth unto Medeba.’ This may have been the original settlement of the clan of that name. It should be sought, probably, near the upper reaches of the Jabbok; but the site has not been recovered.

W. Ewing.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

The name given to Kenath (q.v.) by Nobah when he conquered it. It was on the east of Gilead ( Judges 8:11 ).

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Nobah'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/n/nobah.html. 1897.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

1. An Israelite of Manasseh the conqueror of Kenath and its dependent villages E. of Jordan ( Numbers 32:42).

2. The town so named by Nobah instead of its former name, Kenath ( Judges 8:11). The old name is revived in Kenawat in the Lejah or Trachonitis. But Ewald identified Nobah with Nawa on the Damascus road, 16 miles E. from the N. end of the sea of Tiberias.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Numbers 32:42 2 Numbers 32:42 Judges 8:10-11

Morrish Bible Dictionary

A Manassite who took Kenath and its villages, and called it after his own name.  Numbers 32:42;  Judges 8:11 . See KENATH.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

This man gave name to the city Nobah. ( Numbers 32:42)

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Na'bach, נֹבִח , a Barking, Or [as Furst suggests] Pre-Eminoence; Sept. Ναβαῦ , Ναβά , v.r. Ναβώθ , Ναβέθ ) , the name of a man and. also of a place.

1. An Israelitish warrior ( Numbers 32:42 only), probably, like Jair, a Manassite, who during the conquest of the, territory on the east of Jordan possessed himself of the town of Kenath and the villages or hamlets dependent upon it (Heb. "daughters'), and gave them his own name. B.C. cir. 1617. According to the Jewish tradition ( Seder Olam Rabba, ix), Nobah was born in Egypt, died after the decease of Moses, and was buried during the passage of the Jordan.

2. The name conferred by the above-mentioned conqueror of Kenath and its dependent villages on his new acquisition ( Numbers 32:42). It is most probably the same place which is mentioned in the book of Judges ( Judges 8:11) in describing Gideon's pursuit of the princes of Midian: "And Gideon went up by the way of them that dwell in tents, on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and smote the host: for the host was secure." If this be so, then Gideon must have followed the Midianites into the great plain east of Jebel Hauran. The remarks of Eusebius and Jerome on this name are very confused. In one place (Onomast. s.v. Nabbe) they confound it with the sacerdotal city Nob; while in another they seem at least to confound it with Nebo of Moab (s.v. Nabo), and locate it eight miles south of Heshbon. Both these views are entirely opposed to the topography of the sacred writers. That Nobah was the name given to the ancient Kenath cannot be doubted; the new name, however, did not survive the Israelitish rule in that region. It appears never to have superseded the old among the aborigines, and on the retirement of the Israelites the latter was resumed. The evidence is conclusive to identify Kenath with the modern Kunzowat (Porter, Hand-book, 2:90) Ewald, Gesch. Israel's. 2:268, note 2) identifies the Nobah of Gideon's pursuit with Nophah of  Numbers 21:30, and distinguishes them both from Nobah of  Numbers 32:42, on the ground of their being mentioned with Dibon, Medeba, and Jogbehah. But if Jogbehah be, as he elsewhere (2:504, note 4) suggests, el-Jebeibeh, between Amman and esSalt, there is no necessity for the distinction. In truth the lists of Gad and Reuben in Numbers 32 are so confused that it is difficult to apportion the towns of each in accordance with our present imperfect topographical knowledge of those regions. Ewald also (2:392 note) identifies Nobah of  Numbers 32:42 with Nawa or Neve, a place fifteen or sixteen miles east of the north end of the Lake of Gennesaret (Ritter, Jordan, p. 356). But if Kenath and Nobah are the same, and Kunawat be Kenath, the identification is both unnecessary and untenable. Schwartz (Palest. p. 223) likewise finds Nobah in the village Kunath, in the mountain of Hauran, one day's journey north of Tell-Hauran. (See Kenath).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

nō´ba ( נבה , nōbhāh  ; Codex Vaticanus Ναβώθ , Nabṓth , Ναβαί , Nabaı́  ; Codex Alexandrinus Ναβώθ , Nabṓth , Ναβέθ , Nabéth ):

(1) Nobah the Manassite, we are told, "went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it Nobah, after his own name" ( Numbers 32:42 ). There can be little doubt that the ancient Kenath is represented by the modern Ḳanawāt , on the western slope of Jebel ed - Drūze , the ancient name having survived that of Nobah.

(2) A city which marked-the course of Gideon's pursuit of the Midianites ( Judges 8:11 ). It is possible that this may be identical with (1). Cheyne argues in favor of this ( Encyclopaedia Biblica , under the word "Gideon"). But its mention along with Jogbehah points to a more southerly location. This may have been the original home of the clan Nobah. Some would read, following the Syriac in  Numbers 21:30 , "Nobah which is on the desert," instead of "Nophah which reacheth unto Medeba." No site with a name resembling this has yet been recovered. If it is to be distinguished from Kenath, then probably it will have to be sought somewhere to the Northeast of Rabbath-Ammon ( ‛Ammān ).