Gebal

Gebal names two distinct places: a Phoenician coastal city south of Sidon, known for its skilled craftsmen and shipbuilders, and a separate district associated with Israel's neighbors near the Dead Sea.

The Phoenician City

Gebal lies on the strip of coastal territory included in the unconquered remnant assigned at the close of Joshua's allotments: "and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrising, from Baal-gad under mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath" (Jos 13:5). Its inhabitants supply skilled stoneworkers for Solomon's temple project, working alongside the labor sent by Hiram of Tyre: "And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites fashioned them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house" (1Ki 5:18).

The city's reputation for maritime craft surfaces again in the lament over Tyre, where Gebal's elders are remembered as the seasoned caulkers who kept the great ships seaworthy: "The old men of Gebal and its wise men were in you, your caulkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to deal in your merchandise" (Eze 27:9).

The Dead Sea District

A second Gebal appears in the catalogue of nations conspiring against Israel in the Asaph psalm. Listed among Edom, the Ishmaelites, Moab, and the Hagrites, this Gebal stands with the southern and eastern peoples ringing Judah: "Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre" (Ps 83:7). The grouping places it in the orbit of the Dead Sea confederacy rather than the Phoenician coast.