Jobesh (-Gilead)

Town in Gilead east of the Jordan, better known as Jabesh-gilead. Its men failed to join Israel's coalition against Benjamin and were nearly wiped out as punishment, until the tribe's survivors were given Jabesh-gilead's surviving virgin daughters as wives to preserve Benjamin's line (Judges 21:8-14). Generations later the Ammonite king Nahash besieged the town, and Saul's rescue of it was his first act as king, one that secured his authority over Israel (1 Sam. 11). After Saul's death in battle, the town's men risked their lives to recover his body from the walls of Beth-shan and gave it honorable burial (1 Sam. 31:11-13; 1 Chr. 10:11-12).