Lo-debar
Biblical town
Lo-debar (Biblical Hebrew: לֹא דְבָר, לוֹ דְבָר, romanized: lōʾ dǝbār) was a town in the Old Testament in Gilead not far from Mahanaim, north of the Jabbok river (2 Samuel 9:4–5) in ancient Israel. It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the home of Machir, a contemporary of David. (2 Samuel 9:4,5).
Lo-debar was also considered a slum town in biblical times. Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan was living in Lo-debar at the house of Machir, son of Ammiel, who was possibly a brother to David's wife Bathsheba (see 1 Chronicles 3 verse 5). King David showed loving kindness to Jonathan's son Mephibosheth by bringing him from Lo-debar and having him eat at the King's table regularly. (2 Samuel 9:1-13).
It is usually believed to be the same as Debir in the Tribe of Gad.(Joshua 13:26) The word means "no pasture,"(2 Samuel 17:27) "no word" or "no communication".
Possible locations are:
Tel Dover (Khirbet ed-Duweir) in the mouth of Yarmouk River. Established as an Iron Age fortified settlement.
“Lo-debar” enters the record as biblical town. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lo-debar, Biblical and town can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Lo-debar” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Lo-debar, Biblical and town provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6663061. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lo-debar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.