limit of Palestine along the eastern bounds of Naphtali to the Jordan proper. It is perhaps the village Ja'uneh, visited by Dr. Robinson, on the declivity of the western mountain south of Lake Huleh,with a wady containing a small stream on the south of the village, and a few ruins of the Jewish type {Later Researches, p. 361, 362). Jab'neh {llah.Yahnek', M33^, a building; Hama- ker, Miscell, Phoen. p. 256, compares the Arabic Yubnay ; Sept. 'lafiijp V. r. 'lajivrj and 'lo/Sti'cYulg. Jabnia), a Philistine town near the Mediterranean, between Joppa and Ashdod, whose wall king Uzziah demolished (2 Chron. xxvi, 6). It is probably this place whose name many of the copies of the Sept. insert in Josh, xv, 56 ('Ispvat, 'laf.tvai, 'Ifiwc'i^, Cod.Yat. FE/iva). In later times (Josephus, Wai; i, 7, 7 ; Strabo, xvi, 759 ; Pliny, V, 14), under the name of Jamnia {'la/n'ia, 1 Mace, iv, 15; 'Idfiveia, 1 Mace, v, 58; x, 69; 2 Mace, xii, 8), it w-as inhabited by Jews as well as Gentiles (Philo, 0pp. ii, 575). According to Josephus (A7)i. xii, 8, 6), Gor- gias was governor of it ; but the text of the Maccabees (2 Mace, xii, 32) has Idumasa. At this time tliere was a harbor on the coast (see Ptol. v, 16, 2), to which, and the vessels lying there, Judas set fire, and the confla- gration was seen at Jerusalem, a distance of about twenty-five miles (2 Mace, xii, 9). The harbor is also mentioned by Pliny, who, in consequence, speaks of the town as double — dum Jamnes (see Reland, p. 823). Like Ascalon and Gaza, the harbor bore the title of Majuraas, perhaps a Coptic word, meaning the " place on the sea" (Kenrick, Phcenicia, p. 27, 29). Pompey took the place from the Jews and joined it to the province of Syria (Josephus, War, i, 7, 7). Its distance from Jerusalem was 240 stadia (2 Mace, xii, 7), from Diospolis twelve Roman miles {liin. Anton.'), from Ascalon 200 stadia (Strabo, xvi, 759). At the time of the fall of Jerusa- lem, Jabneh was one of the most ])opulous places of Ju- daja, and contained a Jewish school of great fame, whose learned doctors are often mentioned in the Talmud (Mishna, Rosh Hasshanu, iv, 1 ; Sanhedr. xi. 4 ; comp. Otho, Lex. Rabb. p. 285 sq. ; Sperbach, Diss, de A cade- mia Jabhnensi ejusque rectoribus,WiQb.\l¥) \ Lightfoot, A cadem. Jubn. histor., in his Ojip. ii, 87 sq.). The Jews called this school their Sanhedrim, though it only jios- sessed a faint shadow of the authority of that great council (Milman, History of the Jevs, iii, 95, 2d edit. ; Lightfoot, ii, 141-143). In this holy city, according to an early Jewish tradition, was buried the great (iama- liel. His tomb was visited by Parchi in the 14th cen- tury (Zunz, in Asher's BenJ. of Tiidela, ii, 439, 440; also 98). In the time of luisebius, however, it had dwindled to a small place (ttoXixi'?;), merely requiring casual mention {Onomasticon, s. v. 'iapviia). In the 6th cen-
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tun', under Justinian, it became the seat of a Christian bishop (Epiphanius, adv. Hier. lib. ii, 730). Under the Cnisailers, who thought it to be the site of (iath, and who built a fortress in it, it bore the corrupted name of Ibelin, and gave a title to a line of counts, one of whom, Jean d'Ibelin, about 1250, restored to efficiency the fa- mous code of the "Assises de Jerusalem" (Gibbon, chap. Iviii ad tin.). For the history in full, see Reland, I'u- liest. p. 822 ; RosenmiiUer, .1 Iterth. ii, 2, p. 366 ; Raumer, Paliist. p. 200; comp. Thomson, /.. and B. ii, 312 sq.
The name Ytbiia is still borne by a little village among the ruins of the ancient site, upon a small emi- nence on the western side of wady Rubin, about one hour from the sea (Irby and Mangles, p. 182; Corresp. trOrient, v, p. 373, 374). According to Scholz {Reisen, p. 146), there are here the ruins of a former church, af- terwards a mosque ; also, nearer the sea, the ruins of a Roman bridge over the wady, with liigh arches, built of very large stones. On the eastern side of the wady, on a small eminence, is the tomb of Rubin (Reuben), the son of Jacob, from whom the wady takes its name ; it is mentioned by Mejr ed-Din (1495) as having been formerly a noted place of pilgrimage for IMoslcms, as it still is in some degree {Fundgi: des Orients, ii, 138). It is about eleven miles south of Jaffa, seven from Ramleh, and four from Akir (Ekron). (See Robinson's Research- es, iii, 22; Rittcr, L'rdk. xvi, 125.) It probably occu- pies its ancient site, for some remains of old buildings are to be seen, possibly relics of the fortress which the Crusaders built there (Porter, Handbook, p. 274).
This position likewise corresponds with that of Jab- NEEL (Josh. XV, II) on the western end of the northern boundary of Judah (so Schwarz, Palestine, p. 98; Keil, Comment, ad loc), which^is placed by Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s. v. Jamneel) between Ashdod and Diospolis. There is no sign of its ever having been occupied by Judah. Josephus (.4 nf. v, 1, 22) correctly attributes it to tlie Danites. There was a constant struggle going on between that tribe and the Philistines for the possession of all the places in the lowland plain [see Dan], and it is not surprising that the next time we meet with Jabneel it should be in the hands of the latter (2 Chron. xxvi, 6).