1 Chronicles 10:12 -

Jabesh . This is the only place where "Jabesh" is used as an abbreviation for Jabesh-gilead, of which it was the chief city. Gilead comprised the lots of Reuben and Gad ( Numbers 32:1-5 , Numbers 32:25-32 , Numbers 32:39-41 ) and of half Manasseh ( 1 Chronicles 27:21 ). Saul had on a celebrated occasion ( 1 Samuel 11:1-13 ) befriended the people of Jabesh-gilead, coming to their rescue against Nahath the Ammonite, of which kindness they are now mindful, show that rarest of virtues, gratitude to a fallen monarch, and are further on ( 2 Samuel 2:5 ) commended for it by David. This verse does not tell us, as the parallel ( 1 Samuel 31:12 ) does, of the first burning of the bodies, and then of the burying of the calcined bones. The silence is very remarkable. It does name the kind of tree, the "oak" or "terebinth." The word for the tree, however, in both passages is of doubtful and perhaps only generic signification. The several Hebrew words translated in various places as "oak," all share a common root, significant of the idea of strength. Dr. Thomson says that the country owns still to an abundance of oaks of very fine growth in some eases, and that these are exceedingly more plentiful and altogether a stronger tree than the "terebinth." The different names, though all connected with one root, referred to are probably owing to the large variety of oaks. With the statement of the burying of the bones under a tree, and the fasting of seven days on the part of these brave and grateful men of Jabesh-gilead, the parallel account comes to its end.