Zeboim (Hebrew Bible)

Zeboim is the name in English of two or three places in the Bible:

1. Zeboim, Zeboiim or Tzvoyim (Hebrew: צְבוֹיִים, Modern: Ṣəvōyīm, Tiberian: Ṣeḇōyīm, "Deer (plural); goats; gazelles; roes") was one of the "five cities of the plain" of Sodom, generally coupled with Admah (Gen. 10:19; 14:2; Deut. 29:23; Hos. 11:8). It had a king of its own ("Shemeber", שמאבר, Gen. 14:2), and was therefore a place of some importance. It was destroyed along with the other cities of the plain, according to Deuteronomy 29:23.
2. The Valley of Zeboyim (גי הצבעים Gē haṣṢāḇoʻim, "Valley of the Hyenas"), a valley or rugged glen somewhere near Gibeah in Benjamin (1 Sam. 13:18). It was probably the place now bearing the name Wadi Shaykh aḍ-Ḍubʻa "Ravine of the Chief of the Hyenas" north of Jericho.
3. Zeboim (צבעים Ṣāḇoʻim, "Hyenas"), a place mentioned only in the Book of Nehemiah 11:34, inhabited by the Benjamites after the Babylonian captivity.

See also

• Admah – one of the five "cities of the plain"
• Sodom and Gomorrah – two of the five "cities of the plain"
• Zoar, former Bela – one of the five "cities of the plain"

Further reading

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Zeboim". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.