Hebrew word · H3192

יׇטְבָה

yatevah

Jotbah

A place name, probably from y-ṭ-b, 'to be good or pleasant'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 15, 2026

What it means

§ Jotbah = "pleasing"

a city in Judah, hometown of Meshullemeth, wife of king Manasseh

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: A place name, probably from y-ṭ-b, 'to be good or pleasant'.
Against the English: KJV/WEB/ESV-type renderings ('the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah') keep the Hebrew order and its ambiguity. BSB and NIV ('she was from Jotbah') settle that it goes with the mother. That is a reasonable but interpretive choice.
Used elsewhere in the period: Two identifications. (1) Lower Galilee: usually Khirbet Jefat / Yodefat, the Jotapata that Josephus defended in 67 CE (Jewish War 3), and probably the 'Iatbite' in Tiglath-pileser III's list of Galilean towns. (2) The Jotbathah of the wilderness itinerary (Numbers 33:33–34; Deuteronomy 10:7) in the Arabah, south of Judah.

2 Kings · 1

2 Kings 21:19 יָטְבָֽה׃ Jotbah

Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah.

Here: Her home town. It is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible, and where it was is disputed: lower Galilee or the far south (see debates).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.