Abel Keramim

ABEL KERAMIM (ā'bĕl kĕr-a-mĭm, Heb. ’avēl-kerāmîm, meadow of vineyards or brook of vineyards). A place in Ammon, east of the Jordan, to which Jephthah pursued the Ammonites (Judg.11.33).

---

ABEL-KERAMIM ā’ bəl kĕr’ ə mĭm (אָבֵ֣ל כְּרָמִ֔ים meadow of vineyards). Along with Atoer, Minnith, and “twenty cities,” this city is listed as one taken in Jephthah’s military campaign against the Ammonites. The forces of Jephthah gathered at Mizpah (Judg 10:17), which is also called Mizpeh of Gilead (11:29). None of these locations have been identified with certainty, but if Mizpah be identified with Ramathmizpeh, which is listed as one of the cities of Gilead coming between Heshbon and Betonim (Josh 13:26), then Abel-keramim must be sought in an area S of the Jabbok River. Aharoni suggests somewhere near Jebel Jel ’ad and Khirbet Jel ’ad; Grollenberg identifies it with modern Na ’ur, about nine m. from Amman. See Eusebius, Onomasticon 32. 15, 16.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

A city mentioned in the Revised Version (British and American) in Jud 11:33, along with Aroer, Minnith, and "twenty cities," in summarizing Jephthah’s campaign against the Ammonites. The King James Version translates "the plain of the vineyards." The site has not been identified, though Eusebius and Jerome speak of it as in their time a village about seven Roman miles from the Ammonite city of Rabbah.