Nobah
No'bah (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 (Nu 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 (Nu 32:42). It is most probably the same place which is mentioned in the book of Judges (Jg 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 It appears never to have superseded the old among the aborigines, and on the retirement of the Israelites the latter was resumed.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 Nu 21:30, and distinguishes them both from Nobah of Nu 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 Nu 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.
