Tubal

The son of Japheth. (Gen. x. 2.) His name is probably taken from Thebal, earth. And there was a Tubal - Cain, son of Lamech. It. hath been thought by some that as Cain is derived from Canah, this junction seems to imply that this man had much earthly possession, or perhaps figuratively so called from being the first instructor, or as the margin of the Bible renders it, the whetter of the metals of the earth. (See Gen. 4: 22.)

the fifth son of Japheth. The Scripture commonly joins together Tubal and Meshech, which makes it thought that they peopled countries, bordering upon each other. The Chaldee interpreters, by Tubal and Meshech, understand Italy and Asia, or rather Ausonia. Josephus accounts them to be Iberia and Cappadocia. St. Jerom affirms that Tubal represents the Spaniards, heretofore called Iberians. Bochart is very copious in proving, that by Meshech and Tubal are intended the Muscovites and the Tibarenians.

Tu´bal, a son of Japhet, and a people descended from him (Gen 10:2; Isa 66:19; Eze 27:13; Eze 32:26; Eze 38:2-3; Eze 39:1), supposed to have been settled in Asia Minor near the Euxine [NATIONS, DISPERSION OF].

A Son of Japheth, Gen 10:2 ; supposed to have been the originator of the Tybareni, who occupied the northeastern part of Asia Minor. They were a warlike people, and brought slaves and copper vessels to the market of Tyre, Isa 66:19 ; Eze 27:13 ; 32:26; 38:2; 39:1.\par

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.

Gen 10:2; 1Ch 1:5; Isa 56:19. Tubal, Javan, and Meshech are the associated sons of Japheth. They brought slaves (beautiful ones abounded in the Euxine coasts, and were traded in by the Cappadocians: Polyb. 4:38, section 4) and copper vessels to the Phoenician markets (copper and metals of the neighbouring Mossynaeci and Chalybes were famed, and copper mines were at Chalvar in Armenia): Eze 27:13; nations of the north (Eze 32:26; Eze 38:2-3; Eze 38:15; Eze 39:1-2). Gog is their chief prince. Tubal answers to the Tibareni, as Meshech to the Moschi; close to one another, on the northern coast of Asia Minor, about the river Melanthius (Melet Irmak), in Herodotus’ and Xenophon’s days; previously among the most powerful races.

The Assyrian monarchs from 1100 to 700 B.C. were often warring with the Muskai and Tuplai, E. of the Taurus range, and occupying the region afterward called Cappadocia, Rawlinson (Herodotus i. 535) makes them Turaniaus (the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, ii. 1010, calls them Scythians) who spread over the entire region between the Mediterranean and India, the Persian gulf and Caucasus. In Sargon’s time, according to inscriptions, Ambris, son of Khuliya, was their hereditary chief, and by alliance with the kings of Musak and Vararat (Mesech and Ararat) who were revolting from Assyria. drew on himself the hostility of that monarch. Xenophon (Anabasis vii. 8, section 25) says the Tibareni were then an independent tribe; 24 kings of the Tuplai in previous ages are mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions (Hincks in Rawlinson’s Herodotus i. 380 note). Rich in flocks (Apollon. Rhod., Arg. 2:377).

Tubal (tû’bal). Fifth son of Japheth, whose descendants probably peopled a country lying south of the Caucasus, between the Black Sea and the Araxes, whose inhabitants were the Tibareni of the Greeks. Gen 10:2. The Circassians, who inhabit this region, were slave-dealers, and they of Tubal traded in the persons of men. Eze 27:13; Eze 38:2; comp. Rev 18:13.

[Tu’bal]

Son of Japheth, and his descendants, who are supposed to have settled on the south-east of the Euxine or Black Sea, and were known as the Tibareni. They sent slaves and brass to Tyre. Their descendants with Rosh and Meshech will be among the enemies of the Jews in a future day, and will be destroyed. Gen 10:2; 1Ch 1:5; Isa 66:19; Eze 27:13; Eze 32:26; Eze 38:2-3; Eze 39:1. The district they occupied now forms a part of the Russian Empire, which well agrees with their being associated with Rosh (Russia) and the Muscovites spoken of in Ezek. 38. The Moschi and Tibareni are constantly associated in the Assyrian inscriptions under the names of Muskai and Tuplai , which latter very nearly approaches Tubal.

TUBAL.—A country and people in Asia Minor mentioned only in association with Meshech (wh. see).

J. F. McCurdy.

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, Tibarēnoı́, 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.