Zobah or Aram-Zobah was the capital of an early Aramean state in southern Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, at one time of considerable importance. In I Samuel xiv. 47, its king is supposed to have fought with Saul

Saul

-People:Saul is a given/first name in English, the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name Shaul from the Hebrew Bible:* Saul , including people with this given namein the Bible:* Saul , a king of Edom...

, but this has hitherto been unconfirmed.

Its king, Hadadezer bar Rehob

Hadadezer bar Rehob

Hadadezer the son of Rehob was king of the Aramaean kingdom of Zobah during the early tenth century BCE. According to II Samuel, Hadadezer allied with the Ammonites against King David of Israel but was defeated...

, allied with Ammon against David

David

David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

, who defeated Zobah and made the kingdom tributary to Israel

United Monarchy

According to Biblical tradition, the united Kingdom of Israel was a kingdom that existed in the Land of Israel, a period referred to by scholars as the United Monarchy. Biblical historians date the kingdom from c. 1020 BCE to c...

 (II Samuel 10.). In this war, Arameans from across the Euphrates

Euphrates

The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...

 came to Hadadezer's aid (II Sam. 16:5). Upon the accession of Solomon

Solomon

Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...

, Zobah became independent of Israel (compare I Kings xi. 23 et seq.). Berothai, a city belonging to Hadadezer (II Sam. 8:8) is identified by many with Berothah

Berothah

Berothah or Berothai was a city in ancient Syria belonging to Hadadezer bar Rehob, king of Zobah in the early tenth century BCE. It is identified by many scholars with the Berothah mentioned in Ezekiel xlvii. 16, which was between Hamath and Damascus....

 (Ezekiel

Ezekiel

Ezekiel , "God will strengthen" , is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Ezekiel is acknowledged as a Hebrew prophet...

 xlvii. 16), which was between Hamath and Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

. Zobah was probably located near this city, though Joseph Halévy

Joseph Halévy

Joseph Halévy was an Ottoman born Jewish-French Orientalist and traveller.He did his most notable work was done in Yemen, which he crossed during 1869 to 1870 in search of Sabaean inscriptions, no European having traversed that land since AD 24; the result was a most valuable collection of 800...

 claims to have identified Zobah with Chalcis

Chalcis, Syria

Chalcis was an ancient city in Syria. Syrian Chalcis was the birthplace of 3rd century Neoplatonist philosopher Iamblichus.It is thought to be the site of the modern town of Qinnasrin, though Anjar in Lebanon has also been suggested as the site of ancient Chalcis....

. On either view, the area in question would be found in the far south of Syria and parts of Lebanon.

After the 10th century BCE, Zobah is not mentioned in the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

, but the city of Subiti, which is mentioned in the annals of Assurbanipal as having been conquered by him in the seventh century BCE, is probably identical with it (compare Schrader, "K. B." ii. 217). The same city is mentioned in some broken cuneiform

Cuneiform script

Cuneiform script )) is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium , cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs...

 lists of towns in connection with Hamath and Damascus.

From the 11th century it was common Rabbinic usage to apply the term "Aram Zobah" to the area of Aleppo

Aleppo

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...

, and this is perpetuated by Syrian Jews

Syrian Jews

Syrian Jews are Jews who inhabit the region of the modern state of Syria, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: from the Jews who inhabited the region of today's Syria from ancient times Syrian Jews are Jews who inhabit the region of the modern...

to this day..