Tubal

 

Tu'bal. Tubal is reckoned with Javan and Meshech, among the sons of Japheth. Gen_10:2; 1Ch_1:5. The three are again associated in the enumeration of the sources, of the wealth of Tyre, Eze_27:13; Tubal and Javan, Isa_68:19; Meshech and Tubal, Eze_32:26; Eze_38:2-3; Eze_39:1; are nations of the north. Eze_38:15; Eze_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.

 

Source:  Smith’s Bible Dictionary

 

Tubal

 

tū´bal (תּוּבל, tūbhal, תּבל, tubhal; Septuagint Θόβελ, Thóbel, Codex Alexandrinus in Eze_39:1, Θόβερ, Thóber): As the text stands, Tubal and Meshech are always coupled, except in Isa_66:19 (Massoretic Text) and Psa_120:5. In the former passage Tubal is yoked with Javan; in the latter Meshech occurs in Psa_120:5 and Kedar in Psa_120:6. In Gen_10:2 parallel, they are sons of Japheth. In Ezekiel (Eze_27:13) the two are mentioned as exporters of slaves and copper, as a warlike people of antiquity (Eze_32:26), in the army of Gog (Eze_38:2 ff; Eze_39:1). Josephus identifies them with the Iberians and Cappadocians respectively; but they are most probably the Τιβαρηνοί, Tibarēnoí, 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.

 

Source:  International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

 

Tubal

 

(1.) The fifth son of Japheth (Gen_10:2).

(2.) A nation, probably descended from the son of Japheth. It is mentioned by Isaiah (Isa_66:19), along with Javan, and by Ezekiel (Eze_27:13), along with Meshech, among the traders with Tyre, also among the confederates of Gog (Eze_38:2, Eze_38:3; Eze_39:1), and with Meshech among the nations which were to be destroyed (Eze_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.

 

Source:  Easton’s Bible Dictionary