Riblah, the Biblical Army Camp on the Orontes

Riblah is a mound on the eastern bank of the Orontes, south of Homs, next to the present-day town of Rabla. A cemetery covers it today and no structures are visible. Its name comes from two scenes in the Hebrew Bible: in 609 BC the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II camped here, and about twenty years later so did Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, and the fate of the kings of Judah was decided at Riblah. It lies in a strip very close to the Lebanese border, and current access could not be verified.

Where it is

The mound stands in the wide, fertile plain of the Orontes, 16 to 19 km south of Lake Qattinah (Lake Homs) and about 56 km northeast of Baalbek. Rabla today is a town in al-Qusayr District. The Orontes crosses from Lebanon into Syria at the al-Umariya mill in this town and flows 20 km through Syria before reaching Lake Qattinah.

Why here

Riblah sat on the great trade route from Egypt to Mesopotamia via Carchemish, where the road crossed the Euphrates. It had plenty of water, food and fuel, which made it a good place for an army to camp. The Bible describes it as being in the land of Hamath. In Roman times the town was also called Daphne.

Riblah in the Bible

After defeating the army of King Josiah at Megiddo in 609 BC, Pharaoh Necho II set up camp at Riblah. Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, newly anointed king, was held prisoner here, then taken to Egypt, where he died (Second Kings, chapter 23). A verse in Ezekiel is read as saying that Necho invited him to talks at Riblah and trapped him.

About twenty years later Nebuchadnezzar II made his headquarters here during the campaign that ended with the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 or 586 BC. King Zedekiah of Judah was captured and brought to Riblah. He was made to watch his sons being killed, then blinded and taken to Babylon, and his officials were executed at Riblah. The story is told in Second Kings (chapter 25) and in Jeremiah (chapters 39 and 52).

What is there today, and can you go

There are no excavated or standing remains on the mound; the village cemetery covers it. What you see is a low rise in the Orontes plain and the flat land around it. The point of the place is its position, not the view. Rabla is in the Lebanese border strip, and no dated source from the last 12 months was found on transport or security in the area. This page is not a recommendation to visit; anyone thinking of going should check the current situation locally first.

Do not miss

That there is a second Riblah. Chapter 34 of the Book of Numbers mentions another Riblah on the eastern border of the land promised to Moses, and its location is still uncertain. When reading about Riblah, checking which one is meant is the only way to keep this mound on the Orontes apart from that uncertain site.