Hobah

Place to the north of Damascus to which Abraham pursued the defeated army of Chedorlaomer (Gen. xiv. 15). Wetzstein identified the Biblical Hobah with the modern Ḥobah, 60 miles north of Damascus (Delitzsch,"Genesis," pp.561 et seq.). But the Jews of Damascus affirm that the village of Jobar, not far from Damascus, is the Hobah of the Bible. Rashi, following pseudo-Jonathan, takes "Hobah" as a substitution for "Dan," where Jeroboam had erected a golden calf as an object of worship (I Kings xii. 29), interpreting "Hobah" as "the sinful place." The Targum of Jerusalem renders it by "'Awweta."

E. G. H. M. Sel.