Tel-Abib

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Tel-a'bib. (Cornhill). Telabib was, probably, a city of Chaldaea , or Babylonia, not of upper Mesopotamia as generally supposed.  Ezekiel 3:16. The whole scene of Ezekiel's preaching, and visions, seems to have been Chaldaea proper; and the river, Chebar, as already observed, was not the Khabour, but a branch of the Euphrates.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Tel-abib ( Tĕl-Â'Bib ), Corn Hill. A place in Babylonia where some of the Jewish captives were stationed. It was by the river of Chebar; but its precise site is doubtful.  Ezekiel 3:15.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

The "hill" or "mound" Abib. The place of Ezekiel's residence among the Jewish captives in Babylonia, on the Chebar, a branch of the Euphrates ( Ezekiel 3:15); the Nahr Μalcha , Nebuchadnezzar's royal canal.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Tel-Abib (perh. ‘hill of corn’). A place on the Chebar (  Ezekiel 3:15 ); site unknown.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Ezekiel 3:15

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Ezekiel 3:15

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

tel - ā´bib ( אביב תּל , tēl 'ābhı̄bh  ; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) ad acervum novarum frugum ):

1. The Name and Its Meaining:

As written in Hebrew, Tel-abib means "hill of barley-ears" and is mentioned in  Ezekiel 3:15 as the place to which the prophet went, and where he found Jewish captives "that dwelt by the river Chebar." That Tel-abib is written, as Fried. Delitzsch suggests, for Til Abūbi , "Mound of the Flood" (which may have been a not uncommon village-name in Babylonia) is uncertain. Moreover, if the captives themselves were the authors of the name, it is more likely to have been in the Hebrew language. Septuagint, which has metéōros , "passing on high," referring to the manner in which the prophet reached Tel-abib, must have had a different Hebrew reading.

2. The Position of the Settlement:

If the Chebar be the nâr Kabari , as suggested by Hilprecht, Tel-abib must have been situated somewhere in the neighborhood of Niffer, the city identified with the Calneh of   Genesis 10:10 . The tablet mentioning the river Kabaru refers to grain (barley?) seemingly sent by boat from Niffer in Niṣan of the 21st year of Artaxerxes I. Being a navigable waterway, this was probably a good trading-center.

Literature.

See Hilprecht and Clay, Business Documents of Murasha Sons ("Pennsylvania Exp.," Vol IX, 28); Clay, Light on the Old Testament from Babel , 405.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

[many Tel'-abib] (Chald. Tel-Abib', תֵּלאּאָבַיב , Corn-Hill; Sept. Μετέωρος ; Vulg. Ad Acerum Novarum Frugum), was probably a city of Chaldsea or Babylonia (Ezra 3:15), not of Upper Mesopotamia, as generally imagined (Calmet, Ad Loc.; Winer. Ad Loc .). The whole scene of Ezekiel's preaching and visions seems to have been Chaldea proper; and the river Chebar, as already observed, (See Chebar), was not the Khabbfr, but a branch of the Euphrates. Ptolemy has in this region a Thelbencane and a Thal-atha (Geog. 5, 20); but neither name can be identified with Telabib, unless we suppose a serious corruption. Thiluta and Thelsaphata of Ammian. Marc. (24, 2; 25:8) have likewise been compared; but they are equally uncertain. The element "Tel," in Tel-abib, is undoubtedly "hill." It is applied in modern times by the Arabs especially to the mounds or heaps which mark the site of ruined cities all over the Mesopotamian plain, an application not very remote from the Hebrew use, according to which "Tel" is "especially a heap of stones" (Gesenius, ad loc.). It thus forms the first syllable in many modern as in many ancient names throughout Babylonia, Assyria, and Syria (see Assemani, Bibl. Orient. III, 2, 784).