Ibleam
IBLEAM (ĭb'lē-ăm, Heb. yivie‘ām). A town in the territory of Issachar, given to the tribe of Manasseh (Josh.17.11). The inhabitants, however, were not driven out and continued to live in the land (Judg.1.27). Ahaziah, king of Judah, was killed near there when he fled from Jehu (2Kgs.9.27). Zechariah, king of Israel, was killed there (2Kgs.15.10, see niv footnote). It is generally identified with Bileam, a town of Manasseh given to the Levites (1Chr.6.70). Ruins of the town remain.
IBLEAM ĭb’ lĭ əm (יִבְלְעָם). The Canaanite town (Judg 1:27) in the southern point of Jezreel Valley proper, guarding one of the four or five passes on the Via Maris from the Sharon Plain. The name would appear to be an atronymic and is attested already in the 15th cent. b.c. by Thutmose III’s list of 119 Canaanite towns, of which No. 43 is Ybr’m, Ibleam. The perplexing reference in Joshua 17:11 that Manasseh had “in Issachar and in Asher...Ibleam” has been cleared up by Y. Kaufmann. The text should not be tr. in Issachar and in Asher, but beside, or along, or to the border of these other two tribes.
Ahaziah, king of Judah, was slain by Jehu when he fled by chariot at the ascent of Gur, which is near Ibleam (2 Kings 9:27). In 2 Kings 15:10, some would correct the awkward “before the people” to “in Ibleam,” on the basis of the LXX text of Lagardiana, thus making Ibleam infamous again as the site of Shallum’s assassination of the king of Israel, Zechariah.
It seems reasonable to take the 1 Chronicles 6:70 reference to the Levitical city “Bileam” as identical with Ibleam.
Modern Ibleam is Khirbet Bil ’ameh, N of Shechem and ten m. SE of Megiddo.
Bibliography
Y. Kaufman, The Biblical Account of the Conquest of Palestine (1953), 36-40; Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible (1967), 148, 269, 270.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
(yibhle`am); A town in the territory of Issachar which was assigned to Manasseh (Jos 17:11). This tribe, however, failed to expel the inhabitants, so the Canaanites continued to dwell in that land (Jud 1:27). It was on the route by which Ahaziah fled from Jehu. He was overtaken and mortally wounded "at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam" (2Ki 9:27). The name appears as Bileam in 1Ch 6:70; and it probably corresponds to Belmen of Jth. It is now represented by the ruin of Bel`ameh on the West of the valley through which the road to the south runs, about half a mile from Jenin. In 2Ki 15:10, where it is said that Zechariah the son of Jeroboam was slain by Shallum "before the people," this last phrase, which is awkward in the Hebrew, should be amended to read "in Bileam." Possibly "Gath-rimmon" in Jos 21:25 is a clerical error for "Ibleam."