TUBAL tōō’ bəl, a Neo-Hitt. confederacy located in the heartland of the Taurus mountains of southern Anatolia (modern Turkey). It is mentioned in the table of nations in Genesis 10:2 as one of the sons of Japheth along with the Javan, Ionians or Eastern Greeks. Tubal (Akkad. Tabal), came to prominence during the first millennium b.c. after the decline of the great Hitt. kingdom of Ḥattusas. Tubal is also mentioned in 1 Chronicles 1:5 and several times in Ezekiel. In the Bible Tubal is the source of slaves and metals (Ezek 27:13, et al.). In most of these passages Tubal is mentioned with Meshech (Akkad. Mushki), the Phrygians and is castigated for its terrible deeds. As the Assyrian military power expanded N and E, it came into long and bitter conflict with the tribal confederacies of Anatolia from the rise of Ashurnaṩirpal (c. 870 b.c.), until the onslaught of the Scythians in 679 b.c. Tabal(a) is mentioned in numerous records of the punitive campaigns sent into the Taurus during these centuries. Subsequently it was known as Tubal, תֻּבָ֑ל, in Heb. and Τιβαρηνοι to Herodotus (3:94), who states that it supplied troops to the Pers. armies of Darius and Xerxes. The ferocity of the arms of Tubal was proven by their defeat and destruction only after hundreds of years of continual warfare, Sargon II (Isa 20:1) died in his campaign against them in 705 b.c.