Babatha bat Shimʿon, also known as Babata (Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: בבתא, romanized: babbaṯā, lit.

'Pupil (of the eye)'; c. 104 – after 132) was a Jewish woman who lived in the town of Maḥoza at the southeastern tip of the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan at the beginning of the 2nd century.

Her father, Shimon, son of Menachem, was from Ein Gedi in Judea and came to Maḥoza roughly around the time of her birth and bought property there.

[3][2] It is uncertain whether Babatha lived in the same home as the first wife or if Judah traveled between two separate households, as polygamy was common and mandated by law in the Jewish community.

Judah accompanied Babatha to Rabba to declare her property in Maḥoza to the governor of Arabia Petraea during a Roman census and served as her legal guardian.

Babatha's seizure of her late husband's property was contested by these same nephews, whom Julia Crispina again represented in the court of the provincial governor.

At one point, Babatha summoned Julia Crispina to court, despite her Roman elite status, claiming that a false charge of violence had been made against her.

"[7] The latest documents discovered in the pouch concern a summons to appear in an Ein Gedi court as Judah's first wife, Miriam, had brought a dispute against Babatha regarding their late husband's property.

They are thought to have taken refuge in the Cave of Letters together with the family of Jonathan, son of Beianus, a Jewish general of the Bar-Kokhba revolt who was apparently Miriam's brother.

[2] The satchel containing Babatha's legal documents was placed into a hole along with what were probably her other possessions that she had taken into the cave: a pair of sandals, a bundle of balls of yarn, remnants of fine fabric, two kerchiefs, a key and two key rings, knives including a clasp knife, a box, some bowls, a sickle, and three waterskins.

[1] Because the documents were never retrieved and because twenty skeletal remains were found nearby, historians have suggested that Babatha perished while taking refuge in the cave.