A place north of Damascus, visited by Abraham, Gen 14:15 ; now unknown.\par
Ho’bah. (hiding-place). The place to which Abraham pursued the kings, who had pillaged Sodom. Gen 14:15. It was situated, "to the north of Damascus."
N. of Damascus. To it Abram pursued Chedorlaomer (Gen 14:15). It means a hiding place. Tradition makes Masjad Ibrahim, "the prayer place of Damascus," at the village of Burzeh, three miles N. of Damascus, the scene of his thanksgiving to God after routing the kings. Nicolaus of Damascus makes him to have reigned there (Josephus, Ant. 1:7, section 2). The Jews make Jobar near Burzeh to be Hobah.
[Ho’bah]
Place ’on the left hand,’ that is, to the north of Damascus, to which Abraham pursued the kings who had captured Lot. Gen 14:15. The Muslims point out Burzeh, 33° 32’ N, 36° 8’ E, as the ancient Hobah; but the Jews prefer Jobar , about two miles N.E. of Damascus.
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= "hiding-place"):
By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn
Place to the north of Damascus to which Abraham pursued the defeated army of Chedorlaomer (Gen. xiv. 15). Wetzstein identified the Biblical Hobah with the modern Ḥobah, 60 miles north of Damascus (Delitzsch,"Genesis," pp.561 et seq.). But the Jews of Damascus affirm that the village of Jobar, not far from Damascus, is the Hobah of the Bible. Rashi, following pseudo-Jonathan, takes "Hobah" as a substitution for "Dan," where Jeroboam had erected a golden calf as an object of worship (I Kings xii. 29), interpreting "Hobah" as "the sinful place." The Targum of Jerusalem renders it by "'Awweta."
