Tubal

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 10:2;  1 Chronicles 1:5;  Isaiah 56:19. Tubal, Javan, and Meshech are the associated sons of Japheth. They brought slaves (beautiful ones abounded in the Euxine coasts, and were traded in by the Cappadocians: Polyb. 4:38, section 4) and copper vessels to the Phoenician markets (copper and metals of the neighbouring Mossynaeci and Chalybes were famed, and copper mines were at Chalvar in Armenia):  Ezekiel 27:13; nations of the north ( Ezekiel 32:26;  Ezekiel 38:2-3;  Ezekiel 38:15;  Ezekiel 39:1-2). Gog is their chief prince. Tubal answers to the Tibareni, as Meshech to the Moschi; close to one another, on the northern coast of Asia Minor, about the river Melanthius (Melet Irmak), in Herodotus' and Xenophon's days; previously among the most powerful races.

The Assyrian monarchs from 1100 to 700 B.C. were often warring with the Muskai and Tuplai, E. of the Taurus range, and occupying the region afterward called Cappadocia, Rawlinson (Herodotus i. 535) makes them Turaniaus (the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, ii. 1010, calls them Scythians) who spread over the entire region between the Mediterranean and India, the Persian gulf and Caucasus. In Sargon's time, according to inscriptions, Ambris, son of Khuliya, was their hereditary chief, and by alliance with the kings of Musak and Vararat (Mesech and Ararat) who were revolting from Assyria. drew on himself the hostility of that monarch. Xenophon (Anabasis vii. 8, section 25) says the Tibareni were then an independent tribe; 24 kings of the Tuplai in previous ages are mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions (Hincks in Rawlinson's Herodotus i. 380 note). Rich in flocks (Apollon. Rhod., Arg. 2:377).

Easton's Bible Dictionary

A nation, probably descended from the son of Japheth. It is mentioned by ( Isaiah 66:19 ), along with Javan, and by ( Ezekiel 27:13 ), along with Meshech, among the traders with Tyre, also among the confederates of Gog ( Ezekiel 38:2,3;  39:1 ), and with Meshech among the nations which were to be destroyed (32:26). This nation was probably the Tiberini of the Greek historian Herodotus, a people of the Asiatic highland west of the Upper Euphrates, the southern range of the Caucasus, on the east of the Black Sea.

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 'Tubal'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/t/tubal.html. 1897.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Son of Japheth, and his descendants, who are supposed to have settled on the south-east of the Euxine or Black Sea, and were known as the Tibareni. They sent slaves and brass to Tyre. Their descendants with Rosh and Meshech will be among the enemies of the Jews in a future day, and will be destroyed.  Genesis 10:2;  1 Chronicles 1:5;  Isaiah 66:19;  Ezekiel 27:13;  Ezekiel 32:26;  Ezekiel 38:2,3;  Ezekiel 39:1 . The district they occupied now forms a part of the Russian Empire, which well agrees with their being associated with Rosh (Russia) and the Muscovites spoken of in  Ezekiel 38 . The Moschi and Tibareni are constantly associated in the Assyrian inscriptions under the names of Muskai and Tuplai , which latter very nearly approaches Tubal.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Tu'bal. Tubal is reckoned with Javan and Meshech, among the sons of Japheth.  Genesis 10:2;  1 Chronicles 1:5. The three are again associated in the enumeration of the sources, of the wealth of Tyre,  Ezekiel 27:13; Tubal and Javan,  Isaiah 68:19; Meshech and Tubal,  Ezekiel 32:26;  Ezekiel 38:2-3;  Ezekiel 39:1; are nations of the north.  Ezekiel 38:15;  Ezekiel 39:2. Josephus identified the descendants of Tubal with the Iberians, that is, the inhabitants of a tract of country, between the Caspian and Euxine Seas, which nearly corresponded to the modern Georgia.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Tubal ( Tû'Bal ). Fifth son of Japheth, whose descendants probably peopled a country lying south of the Caucasus, between the Black Sea and the Araxes, whose inhabitants were the Tibareni of the Greeks.  Genesis 10:2. The Circassians, who inhabit this region, were slave-dealers, and they of Tubal traded in the persons of men.  Ezekiel 27:13;  Ezekiel 38:2; comp.  Revelation 18:13.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The son of Japheth. ( Genesis 10:2) His name is probably taken from Thebal, earth. And there was a Tubal-Cain, son of Lamech. It. hath been thought by some that as Cain is derived from Canah, this junction seems to imply that this man had much earthly possession, or perhaps figuratively so called from being the first instructor, or as the margin of the Bible renders it, the whetter of the metals of the earth. (See  Genesis 4:22)

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A Son of Japheth,  Genesis 10:2; supposed to have been the originator of the Tybareni, who occupied the northeastern part of Asia Minor. They were a warlike people, and brought slaves and copper vessels to the market of Tyre,  Isaiah 66:19;  Ezekiel 27:13;  32:26;  38:2;  39:1 .

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

the fifth son of Japheth. The Scripture commonly joins together Tubal and Meshech, which makes it thought that they peopled countries, bordering upon each other. The Chaldee interpreters, by Tubal and Meshech, understand Italy and Asia, or rather Ausonia. Josephus accounts them to be Iberia and Cappadocia. St. Jerom affirms that Tubal represents the Spaniards, heretofore called Iberians. Bochart is very copious in proving, that by Meshech and Tubal are intended the Muscovites and the Tibarenians.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 10:2 1 Chronicles 1:5 Isaiah 66:19 Ezekiel 27:13 Ezekiel 32:26 Ezekiel 38:2-3 Ezekiel 39:1

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

TUBAL . A country and people in Asia Minor mentioned only in association with Meshech (wh. see).

J. F. McCurdy.

Webster's Dictionary

(a.) Of or pertaining to a tube; specifically, of or pertaining to one of the Fallopian tubes; as, tubal pregnancy.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Tubal', תּוּבִל [ תְּבִל in  Genesis 10:2;  Ezekiel 32:26;  Ezekiel 39:1], of uncertain signification; Sept. Θοβέλ , except in  Ezekiel 39:1, where Alex. Θοβέρ ; Vulg. Thubal, but in  Isaiah 66:19, Italia ) . In the ancient ethnological tables of Genesis and 1 Chronicles Tubal is reckoned with Javan and Meshech among the sons of Japheth ( Genesis 10:2; 1 Chronicles 1, 5). B.C. post 2514. The three are again associated in the enumeration of the sources of the wealth of Tyre Javan, Tubal, and Meshech brought slaves and copper vessels to the Phoenician markets ( Ezekiel 27:13). Tubal and Javan ( Isaiah 66:19), Meshech and Tubal ( Ezekiel 32:26;  Ezekiel 38:2-3;  Ezekiel 39:1), are nations of the north ( Ezekiel 38:15;  Ezekiel 39:2). Josephus (Ant. 1, 6, 1) identifies the descendants of Tubal with the Iberians, that is-not, as Jerome would understand it, Spaniards, but-the inhabitants of a tract of country between the Caspian and Euxine seas, which nearly corresponded to the modern Georgia. Knobel connects these Iberians of the East and West, and considers the Tibareni to have been a branch of this widely spread Turanian family, known to the Hebrews as Tubal ( Volkertafeld. Genesis § 13). Bochart (Phaleg, 3, 12) makes the Moschi and Tibareni represent Meshech and Tubal. These two Colchian tribes are mentioned together in Herodotus on two occasions, first, as forming part of the nineteenth satrapy of the Persian empire (3, 94), and again as being in the army of Xerxes under the command of Ariomardus the son of Darius: (7, 78). The Moschi and Tibareni, moreover, are "constantly associated, under the names of Mluskai and Tuplai, in the Assyrian inscriptions" (Sir H. Rawlinson, in Rawlinson's Herod 1, 535).

The Tibareni are said by the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (2, 1010) to have been a Scythian tribe, and they as well as the Moschi are probably to be referred to that Turanian people who in very early times spread themselves over the entire region between the Mediterranean and India, the Persian Gulf and the Caucasus (Rawlinson, Herod. 1, 535). In the time of Sargon, according to the inscriptions, Ambris, the son of Khuliya, was hereditary chief of Tubal (the southern slopes of Taurus). He had cultivated relations with the kings of Musak and Vararat (Meshech and Ararat, or the Moschi and Armenia), who were in revolt against Assyria, and thus drew upon himself the hostility of the great king (ibid. 1, 169, note 3). In former times the Tibareni were probably more important; and the Moschi and Tibareni, Meshech and Tubal, may have been names by which powerful hordes of Scythians were known to the Hebrews.

But in history we only hear of them as pushed to the farthest limits of their ancient settlements, and occupying merely a strip of coast along the Euxine. Their neighbors the Chaldeeans were in the same condition. In the time of Herodotus the Moschi and Tibareni were even more closely connected than at a later period, for in Xenophon we find them separated by the Macrones and Mossynoeci (A nab. 5, 5,1; Pliny, 6:4, etc.). The limits of the territory of the Tibareni are extremely difficult to determine with any degree of accuracy. After a part of the ten thousand Greeks, on their retreat with Xenophon, had embarked at Cerasus (perhaps near the modern KerasAn Dere Su), the rest marched along the: coast, and soon came to the boundaries of the Mossynceci (Anab. 5, 4, 2). They traversed the country occupied by this people in eight days, and then came to the Chalybes, and after them to the Tibareni. The eastern limit of the Tibareni was therefore about eighty or ninety miles along the coast west of Cerasus. Two days march through Tibarene brought the Greeks to Cotyora (ibid. 5, 5, 3), and they were altogether three days in passing through the country (Diod. Sic. 14, 30). Now from Cape Jasoniurn to Boon, according to Arrian (Peripl. 16), the distance was 90 stadia, 90 more to Cotyora, and 60 from Cotyora to the river Melanthius, making in all a coast line of 240 stadia, or three days march. Prof. Rawlinson (Herod. 4:181) conjectures that the Tibareni occupied the coast between Cape Yasfin (Jasonium) and the river Melanthius (Melet Irmak); but if we follow Xenophon, we must place Boon as their western boundary, one day's march from Cotyora, and their eastern limit must be sought some ten miles east of the Melet Irmak, perhaps not far from the modern Aptar, which is three and a half hours from that river.

The anonymous author of the Periplus of the Euxine says (33) that the Tibareni formerly dwelt west of Cotyora as far as Polemonium, at the mouth of the Puleman chai, one and a half miles east of Fatsah. In the time of Xenophon the Tibareni were an independent tribe (Anab. 7:8, 25). Long before this they were subject to a number of petty chiefs, which was a principal element of their weakness, and rendered their subjugation by Assyria more easy. Dr. Hincks (quoted by Rawlinson, Herod. 1, 380, note 1) has found as many as twenty-four kings of the Tuplai mentioned in the inscriptions. They are said by Apollonius Rhodius to have been rich in flocks (Aug. 2, 377). The traffic in slaves and vessels of copper with which the people of Tubal supplied the markets of Tyre ( Ezekiel 27:13) still further connects them with the Tibareni. It is well known that the regions bordering on the Pontus Euxinus furnished the most beautiful slaves, and that the slave-traffic was an extensive branch of trade among the Cappadocians (Polyb. 4:38, 4; Horace, Ep. 1, 6,39; Persius, Sat.. 6 :77; Martial, Ep. 6 :77; 10:76, etc.). The copper of the Mossynoeci, the neighbors of the Tibareni, was celebrated as being extremely bright and without any admixture of tin (Aristot. De Mir. Auscult. 62); and the Chalybes, who lived between these tribes, were long famous for their craft as metal-smiths. We must not forget, too, the copper-mines of Chalvar in Armenia (Hamilton, Asia Min. 1. 173).

The Arabic version of  Genesis 10:2 gives Chorasan and China For Meshech and Tubal; in Eusebius (see Bochart) they are Illyria and Thessaly. The Talmudists ( Yoma, fol. 10, 2), according to Bochart, define Tubal as "the home of the Uniaci ( אונייקי )," whom he is inclined to identify with the Huns ( Phaleg, 3, 12). ‘ They may, perhaps, take their name from AEnoe, the modern Unieh, a town on the south coast of the Black Sea, not far from Cape Yasfn, and so in the immediate neighborhood of the Tibareni. In the Targum of R. Joseph on 1 Chronicles (ed. Wilkins) ויתינייא is given as, the equivalent of Tubal, and Wilkins renders it by Bithynia. But the reading in this passage, as well as in the Targums of Jerusalem and of Jonathan on Genesis 10, is too doubtful to be followed as even a traditional authority. (See Ethnology).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

tū´bal ( תּוּבל , tūbhal , תּבל , tubhal  ; Septuagint Θόβελ , Thóbel , Codex Alexandrinus in   Ezekiel 39:1 , Θόβερ , Thóber ): As the text stands, Tubal and Meshech are always coupled, except in  Isaiah 66:19 (Massoretic Text) and   Psalm 120:5 . In the former passage Tubal is yoked with Javan; in the latter Meshech occurs in  Psalm 120:5 and Kedar in   Psalm 120:6 . In  Genesis 10:2 parallel, they are sons of Japheth. In Ezekiel (  Ezekiel 27:13 ) the two are mentioned as exporters of slaves and copper, as a warlike people of antiquity ( Ezekiel 32:26 ), in the army of Gog ( Ezekiel 38:2 ff;   Ezekiel 39:1 ). Josephus identifies them with the Iberians and Cappadocians respectively; but they are most probably the Τιβαρηνοί , Tibarēnoı́ , and Μόσχοι , Móschoi , first mentioned in Herodotus iii. 94 as belonging to the 19th satrapy of Darius, and again (vii. 78) as furnishing a contingent to the host of Xerxes. Equally obvious is their identity with the Tabali and Muski of the Assyrian monuments, where the latter is mentioned as early as Tiglath-pileser I, and the former under Shalmaneser II; both are described as powerful military states. They appear together in Sargon's inscriptions; and during this entire period their territory must have extended much farther South and West than in Greek-Roman times. They are held (Winckler and Jeremias) to have been remnants of the old Hittite population which were gradually driven (probably by the Cimmerian invasion) to the mountainous district Southeast of the Black Sea.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Tu´bal, a son of Japhet, and a people descended from him (;;;;; ), supposed to have been settled in Asia Minor near the Euxine [[[Nations, Dispersion Of]]]