MOUNT TABOR, tā’ bor (הַר תָבֹ֤ור, LXX, ὄρος θαβώρ, τὸ̀ ̓Ιταβύριον). A hill about ten m. SW of the Sea of Galilee in the Valley of Jezreel.

The border of the inheritance of Issachar touched Tabor according to Joshua 19:22. Thus, the other tribe to touch it would be Zebulun. This has led scholars to believe that Tabor is the mountain referred to in Deuteronomy 33:18f., and that it was a cult center.

During the judgeships of Deborah and Barak, Mt. Tabor played a principal role. Deborah had Barak summon his troops to that mountain (Judg 4:6). Later from that height Barak went down with his 10,000 men and the Lord routed Sisera, the Canaanite general (4:14f.).

Zebah and Zalmunna confessed to Gideon that they had slain Gideon’s brothers at Tabor (8:18).

The other references to Tabor are in poetical passages. The author of Psalm 89 matched Tabor with Hermon in joyously praising God’s name (v. 12). Jeremiah has a colorful description of Nebuchadnezzar in 46:18. The Babylonian monarch is compared to “Tabor among the mountains” and “Carmel by the sea.” Lastly, Hosea used Tabor to illustrate God’s severity toward Israel: “...for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor” (Hos 5:1).

Atabyrium, the city which Antiochus the Great took in 218 b.c., was apparently on Mt. Tabor since Polybius describes it as a “conical hill” near Scythopolis (Beth-shan, Hist. V, 70, 6). The Jews under Jannaeus took the mountain in 105 b.c., but lost it to the Romans under Pompey in 70 b.c. (Jos. Antiq. XIII. xv. 4).

The identification of Mt. Tabor with Jebel et-Tur (mount of the height) is very certain. Although it rises only 1,843 ft. above sea level, it is a prominent feature of the landscape. It is rather steep, somewhat symmetrical, and has a rounded top. From the summit one has a lovely view in all directions. To the NW the higher parts of the city of Nazareth are visible. Farther W is the promontory of Carmel. To the E is the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan with the highlands even farther beyond. At the foot of the mountain to the S is the valley of Jezreel.

Mt. Tabor is not mentioned in the NT, but much of its fame rests in the tradition that the transfiguration of our Lord took place on it. That tradition was well established by a.d. 326 when Helena, the mother of Constantine, built the first Christian shrine on its summit. The hill suffered the vicissitudes of war which destroyed older shrines and made way for new ones. The Crusaders maintained it after their arrival in the Holy Land until Saladin’s victory at the Horns of Hattim in 1187. The Muslims made a fort of the mountain twenty-five years later, but that was shortly destroyed and the summit was relatively empty until the 19th cent. when the Greek Orthodox built a monastery and the Franciscans a basilica of the transfiguration on the top. That basilica has three sections—one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.