Hebrew. ‘Habitation’. The tenth of the twelve sons of Jacob and ancestor of the tribe of the same name (Gen. 46:14; Num. 26:26), which plays an important part in the early history of Israel. Nothing is known of Zabulon except that Sacred, Elon and Jahelel were his sons, as well as the heads of three tribal families. At the census of the tribes, in the Desert of Sinai, during the second year of the Exodus, the tribe of Zabulon numbered 57,400 men fit for war. This army, under the command of Eliab, encamped with Juda and Issachar east of the tabernacle. Among the spies sent by Moses to view the land of Chanaan, Geddiel the son of Sodi, represented Zabulon. At the division of the land between the seven tribes not yet provided for, the lot of Zabulon was third. The tribe's territory started with Sarid (Jos. 19:10), which is supposed to have been Tell Shadud, some five miles southwest of Nazareth. Zabulon's boundaries have not been made out. Of the nineteen proper names that the book of Josue gives to guide us, only Bethleham (Beit lahm, seven miles northwest of Nazareth) can be identified with certainty. In his Jewish Antiquities, Flavius Josephus assigns to Zabulon the land near to Carmel and the sea, as far as the Lake of Genesareth, including a part of the Plain of Esdraelon, and the great highway from the sea to the lake. Within the territory of Zabulon Christ was brought up. In Greek Zaboulōn (Ζαβουλών).