JABNEEL 6t9Z+, God causeth to be built ;' .
; Alex. lapvi)X ; yebneel).
t. A town on the north-western border of Tudah, situated in the plain of Philistia, west of 'Ekron, and between Mount Baalah and the sea. yabneel is only mentioned in Josh. xv. ; but a comparison of that passage with Chron. xxvi. 6, shews that it is the same place which is there cal led Yabneh, and which Uzziah captured, with Gath and Ashdod, from the Philistines. Jabneh (M2'') is the first part of the compound Jabncel PN.n"), the latter part &N, God') being omitted (Sept. 'Iaprnjp and 'IaPeZs). In Josh. xv. 46, instead of From Ekron even unto the sea, the Sept. has, tiirb ' Atucapen, euvei (Alex. nektvai'), which at first sight would seem to be an allusion to this city, though it is only a mistake on the part of the translators of the Hebrew word my', to the sea,' for a proper name. Josephus calls this city lamnia Paypici), and assigns it to the tribe of Dan (Antia. v. 22). It became an important place during the wars of the Maccabees, and played a conspicuous part in later Jewish history (1 Maccab.
iv. 15 ; v. 58 ; x. 69). The school of Jamnia was celebrated after the destruction of Jerusalem, espe cially under the presidency of the famous Rabbin Gamaliel. The Jews called this school their San hedrim, though it only possessed a faint shadow of the authority of that great council (Milman, His tmy of the yews, iii. 95, al ed. ; Lightfoot, Opera, ii. 141-143). At this period, also, Jamnia had a considerable trade, and a good port on the shore of the Mediterranean (2 Maccab. xii. 8, 9 ; Pto
lemy, v. ; Strabo, XV. 2, 29 ; Pliny, H. N.
v. 14).
Jamnia stood, according to the Itinerary of Antonine, between Diospolis (Lydda) and Asca lon, twelve miles from the former, and twenty from the latter (Ant. /tin. ed. Wessel. p. 150). Euesbius describes it as a small town (roXixPn) between Diospolis and Ashdod (Onomast. s. v. Yamnia). We have no difficulty in identifying it with the modem village of Yebna, whose name is radically identical with the Hebrew yabneh (LA.) = Yebna is situated on an eminence in the midst of a rich plain, two miles from the sea, and three from Ekron. Between it and the latter place is a low ridge of limestone hills which the writer was able to identify as the 'Mount Baalah' of Josh. xv. (which is different from the town of Baalah mentioned in ver. 9 ; see Handbook far S. and P., p. 275). The Crusaders thought Jam nia occupied the site of Gath, and they built in it a fortress called Ibelin, with a church, the ruins of which still remain, and have in later times been used as a mosque (Irby and Mangles, Travels, p. 57, ed. 1844 ; Robinson, B. ii. 66, 227 ; Re land, Falast. p. 822 ; Le Quien, Oriaa Christ., iii. 587 ; Ritter, Pal. und Syr., iii. 125).
2. A city of Naphtali (Josh. xix. 33). It may have been, perhaps, identical with the village yaninia, which Josephus fortified during the Jewish Wan ( Vita, 37) ; but its site is unknown.— . L. P.