- verses
- 2
- first named
- Judges 12:8
- last named
- Judges 12:11
- period
- before Israel's Monarchy
- role
- Judge
Description
Who was Ibzan?
Ibzan is mentioned in Jdg.12.8-10 as one of the judges who led Israel after the time of Jephthah. He was from Bethlehem, although it is not specified whether this refers to Bethlehem in Judah or another Bethlehem.
Ibzan judged Israel for seven years. The text mentions that he had thirty sons and thirty daughters. It also states that he sent his daughters abroad in marriage and brought in thirty young women from outside for his sons. This suggests that Ibzan was a man of influence and means, as he was able to arrange marriages for his many children.
The mention of Ibzan's thirty sons and thirty daughters riding on seventy donkeys (Jdg.12.14) further emphasizes his wealth and status, as donkeys were a sign of prosperity and importance in ancient times.
After leading Israel for seven years, Ibzan died and was buried in his hometown of Bethlehem. The brief account of his life and leadership highlights the period of the judges, during which Israel was led by various individuals who delivered the nation from oppression and provided guidance and governance.
Ibzan's story also illustrates the importance of family and marriage alliances in ancient Israelite society, as well as the significance of the number seven, which often represents completeness or perfection in the Bible.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
Places
Where this happens
The places the claims about this person reach, drawn where the gazetteer locates them. A point is where a row puts them and never where tradition does; no line joins two points, because the rows state where and not in what order.
The pattern
Where Ibzan is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
2 verses across 1 of 66 books; 65 write the name nowhere. Named in Judges (2).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 2, across 1 book.
Onward
Where this page goes
Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
Sources