Tob (or Ish-tob), a region east of the Jordan River where Jephthah fled and later recruited mercenaries to fight the Ammonites (Judg. 11:3, 5; 2Sam. 10:6, 8).
Also known as Ish-tob · men of Tob
Tob, also referred to as Ish-tob, was a region east of the Jordan River where Jephthah, a judge of Israel, fled after being expelled by his half-brothers (Judg. 11:3). In Tob, Jephthah gathered a group of worthless men who followed him, possibly serving as mercenaries. When the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead sought out Jephthah in the land of Tob and requested that he lead them in battle (Judg. 11:5-6). Jephthah agreed and successfully defeated the Ammonites. The region of Tob is also mentioned in 2Sa.10.6, 8, where the Ammonites hired mercenaries from Tob to fight against King David's army. The exact location of Tob is uncertain, but it was likely situated in the northern part of Gilead, near the border with Syria.
Approximate location: 32.562, 36.240 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas
(good), The land of, a place in which Jephthah took refuge when expelled from home by his half-brother, (Judges 11:3) and where he remained, at the head of a band of freebooters, till he was brought back by the sheikhs of Gilead. ver. 5. The narrative implies that the land of Tob was not far distant from Gilead; at the same time, from the nature of the case it must have lain out toward the eastern deserts. It is undoubtedly mentioned again in (2 Samuel 10:6,8) as Ishtob, i.e. man of Tob, meaning, according to a common Hebrew idiom, the men of Tob. After a long interval it appears again, in the Maccabaean history, 1 Macc. 5:13, in the names Tobie and Tubieni. 2 Macc. 12:17. No identification of the ancient, district with any modern one has yet been attempted.
TOB (good), the place or district beyond the Jordan to which Jephthah fled, Jud 11:3, 1 Chr 6:5; also called Ish-tob. 2 Sam 10:6, 2 Sam 10:8. It lay beyond Gilead, toward the eastern deserts. There is a modern place called Taiyibet, an Arabic form of "Tob," 12 miles south-east of the Sea of Galilee, which would identify it with the southern part of Bashan.
TOB (good), the place or district beyond the Jordan to which Jephthah fled, Jud 11:3, 1 Chr 6:5; also called Ish-tob. 2 Sam 10:6, 2 Sam 10:8. It lay beyond Gilead, toward the eastern deserts. There is a modern place called Taiyibet, an Arabic form of "Tob," 12 miles south-east of the Sea of Galilee, which would identify it with the southern part of Bashan.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
4 verses in 2 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H2897
So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him.
and made war with them, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.
When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth-rehob and Zoba, as well as a thousand men from the king of Maacah and twelve thousand men from Tob.
The Ammonites marched out and arrayed themselves for battle at the entrance of the city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the open country.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.