ZABADÆANS.The name of an Arabian tribe defeated by Jonathan Maccabæus, b.c. 144. According to the account in 1Ma_12:30-32, its home was to the N.W. of Damascus. Perhaps Zebedâni, on the Anti-Lebanon, about 20 miles on the way from Damascus to Baalbek, represents the ancient name.
J. F. McCurdy.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
zab-a-dē?anz (Ζαβαδαῖοι, Zabadaı́oi; the King James Version Zabadeans; Oesterley, in Charles, Apocrypha, I, 112, prefers, on what seems insufficient evidence, to read ?Gabadeans?; Josephus (Ant., XIII, v, 10) by an obvious error has ?Nabateans?): According to 1 Macc 12:31, an Arabian tribe, defeated and spoiled by Jonathan after his victory in Hamath and before he came to Damascus. There is an ez-Zebedânı̂ about 25 miles Northwest of Damascus (now a station on the railway to Beirut), on the eastern slope of the Anti-Lebanon range. This town may very well have preserved the name of the Zabadaeans, and its situation accords nicely with Jonathan's movements in 1 Macc 12.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.