Bible Encyclopedias
Ahlab

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Hebrew Achlab', אְְחלָב , fatness, i e. fertile; Sept. Ἀχλάβ v. r. Δαλάφ ), a town of Asher, apparently near Zidon and Achzib, the native inhabitants of which the Israelites were unable to expel (Judges 1:31). Its lying thus within the unconquered Phoenician border may be the reason of its omission in the list of the Asherite cities (Joshua 19:24-31). It is supposed (see Schwarz, Palest. p. 198) that Achlab reappears in later history as Gush-Chalab (גּוּשׁ חָלבְ) or Giscala (Reland, Palest. p. 813, 817), a place lately identified by Robinson under the abbreviated name of el-Jish, near Safed, in the hilly country to the northwest of the sea of Galilee (Researches, new ed. 2:446; 3, 73). This place was in rabbinical times famous for its oil, and the old olive-trees still remain in the neighborhood (Reland and Robinson, ib.). From it came the famous John, son of Levi, the leader in the siege of Jerusalem (Joseph. Life, 10; War, 2, 21, 1), and it had a legendary celebrity as the birth-place of the parents of no less a person than the Apostle Paul (Jerome, Comment. ad Ep. ad Philem.). But this cannot be the Ahlab of Asher. (See GISCHALA).

Bibliography Information
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Ahlab'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​tce/​a/ahlab.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.