Jabal or Yabal ( – ''Yāḇāl'') is an individual mentioned in the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
. '' Cain
Cain is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He was a farmer who gave an offering of his crops to God. How ...
) was the son of
Lamech and
Adah, and the brother of
Jubal, half-brother of
Tubal-cain and
Naamah. He is described as the "ancestor of all who live in tents and raise livestock."
Theories
Francis Nigel Lee interprets Genesis 4:20 to mean that Jabal was both the "father of all cattle ranchers" ''and'' the "father of all tent-dwellers", and as such as the "pioneer of all livestock and agricultural technology" as well as the "pioneer of all architecture." Lee notes that Jabal was probably also a weaver, and thus "the pioneer of the clothing industry."
[ Francis Nigel Lee, ''The Central Significance of Culture'' (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1976), 29.]
Gordon Wenham, on the other hand, understands the verse to indicate Jabal was the first "dweller with herds." That is, he was the "father of the
Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...
lifestyle." He notes that whereas
Abel
Abel ( ''Hébel'', in pausa ''Hā́ḇel''; ''Hábel''; , ''Hābēl'') is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within the Abrahamic religions. Born as the second son of Adam and Eve, the first two humans created by God in Judaism, God, he ...
"merely lived off his flocks," Jabal could "trade with his beasts of burden," and that this "represents cultural advance."
[ Gordon Wenham, Genesis 1-15 (Word, 1987), 113.]
Family tree
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jabal
Book of Genesis people