TELEM (tē'lĕm, Heb. telem)
A city of Judah near the border of Edom (Josh.15.24).A porter who put away his foreign wife after the return from captivity (Ezra.10.24).
TELEM te’ lĕm (
טֶ֖לֶם). 1. A Levite who put away his foreign wife in the time of Ezra (
Ezra 10:24;
1 Esd 9:25; KJV, ASV TOLBANES).
2. A town in S Judah from which King Saul launched his attack on Agag, king of the Amalekites (Josh 15:24; 1 Sam 15:4); an alternate form of Telaim.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
A city in the Negeb "toward the border of Edom," belonging to Judah (Jos 15:24). In Septuagint of 2Sa 3:12 Abner is said to send messengers to David at Thelam (Thailam); this would seem to be the same place and also to be identical with the Telaim and Telam of Saul (see Telaim). It is probably the same as the Talmia of the Talmud (Neubauer, Geog. du Talmud, 121). The site has not been recovered.
One of three "porters" who had married foreign wives (
Ezr 10:24), his name appearing as "Tolbanes" in 1 Esdras 9:25; perhaps the same as TALMON (which see).
