Nob was a
priestly town in
ancient Israel in the vicinity of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
. The town is mostly known as the site of a massacre described in the
Bible where the town's Hebrew priests are massacred by
Doeg the Edomite who acted on orders from
King Saul
Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late elevent ...
.
[
]
Location
The town is situated in the southern portion of the land associated with the tribe of Benjamin, and is identified within the village of Shuafat, to the north of Jerusalem.[Regev, E. (2001). The Two Sins of Nob: Biblical Interpretation, an Anti-Priestly Polemic and a Geographical Error in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum. Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, 12(1), 85-104.]
Historical geographers largely identify the site as Bayt Nuba. It likely belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, Jerusalem being at the border between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah.
In the Bible
The town is known for its mention in Samuel 21 and 22 as the site of a massacre of the kohenim, the priesthood. The general reading of the incident follows that David visits Nob while being pursued by Saul. David deceives the high priest Ahimelech, who replies in innocence to Saul interrogation. Saul then orders Doeg the Edomite to execute the priests of Nob. One interpretation follows that David was seeking the support of the ecclesiastical establishment as the nation's only counter-authority to the state. This reading of the text follows that since Nob was a city of priests, it would be an unlikely place for David to seek food and weapons in his flight from Saul. Priests may not be expected to have arms, and the food locals might bring them as offerings is ritually permitted to priests and their families only (designated as terumah
A ''terumah'' (), the priestly dues or heave offering, is a type of offering in Judaism. The word is generally used for offerings to God, but can also refer to gifts to a human.
The word ''terumah'' refers to various types of offerings, but mos ...
). For this reason, some commentaries note that David eats the showbread, which is more sacred than the priestly food but is not ''terumah''. Others interpret the story of David's arrival in Nob as an intentional act to eat the sacred showbread and to retrieve Goliath’s sword which was kept in Nob. These acts are performed to downplay the prestige of Saul. An alternate reading suggests that Ahimelech knowingly colluded with David.[Reis, P. T. (1994). "Collusion at Nob: A New Reading of 1 Samuel 21-22." ''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', 19(61), 59–73.]
Aside from the incident in the Book of Samuel, the town of Nob is mentioned in the Bible in connection with the Neo-Assyrian attack on Israel described in Isaiah 10:32 and concerning the Jewish settlements after the Babylonian captivity
The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile was the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were forcibly relocated to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The deportations occurred ...
listed in Nehemiah 11:33.
See also
* Shiloh (biblical city)
References
Former populated places in West Asia
Hebrew Bible cities
Levitical cities
Massacres in the Bible
Books of Samuel
Saul
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