Ataroth ( ''‘Ǎṭārōṯ'') is the name of two or three Iron Age cities mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

and the

Mesha Stele The Mesha Stele, also known as the Moabite Stone, is a stele dated around 840 BCE containing a significant Canaanite inscription in the name of King Mesha of Moab (a kingdom located in modern Jordan). Mesha tells how Chemosh, the god of Moab, ...

Etymology

Atarot(h) may mean "crowns" or "cattle pens" in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Mesha Stele

The Mesha Stele from about 840 BC was erected commemorating Mesha's victory over the "son" of

Omri Omri ( ; he, , ''‘Omrī''; akk, 𒄷𒌝𒊑𒄿 ''Ḫûmrî'' 'ḫu-um-ri-i'' fl. 9th century BC) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the sixth king of Israel. He was a successful military campaigner who extended the northern kingdom of ...

, but he fails to say which one. He states that he massacred all the Israelites at Ataroth as satisfaction for the blood lust of Chemosh and Moab. He adds that he captured Nebo (Ataroth) and killed everybody, 7,000 men, boys, women, girls, and maidens, because he had dedicated it to the goddess Ashtar-Chemosh.

Hebrew Bible and identification

In the Hebrew Bible, the name Ataroth refers to one of two or perhaps three towns: # A town east of the

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Ri ...

Gilead Gilead or Gilad (; he, גִּלְעָד ''Gīləʿāḏ'', ar, جلعاد, Ǧalʻād, Jalaad) is the ancient, historic, biblical name of the mountainous northern part of the region of Transjordan.''Easton's Bible Dictionary'Galeed''/ref> ...

, mentioned in

Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers ca ...

, & , in the territory of the

Tribe of Gad According to the Bible, the Tribe of Gad () was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel who, after the Exodus from Egypt, settled on the eastern side of the Jordan River. It is one of the ten lost tribes.Tribe still originated from the original Heb ...

. Ataroth lay within the tribal allotment of Reuben, but was built up by the Gadites during the period of Israelite conquest. This is very probably Khirbat Ataruz,
/ref> north of Wadi Heidan. The

(Moabite Stone) is likely referring to this town. # A town west of the Jordan, mentioned in Book of Joshua, Joshua, , which describes the southern border of the children of Joseph (the tribes of

Ephraim Ephraim (; he, ''ʾEp̄rayīm'', in pausa: ''ʾEp̄rāyīm'') was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph ben Jacob and Asenath. Asenath was an Ancient Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph as wife, and the daught ...

and

Manasseh Manasseh () is both a given name and a surname. Its variants include Manasses and Manasse. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Ezekiel Saleh Manasseh (died 1944), Singaporean rice and opium merchant and hotelier * Jacob Manasseh (die ...

). This southern border of Joseph would also be the southern border of Ephraim within Joseph, and also be the northern border of Benjamin. This Ataroth may be the same as Ataroth-Addar, mentioned in Joshua, , in a description of the border of Benjamin. A possible location is

'Atara Atara ( ar, عطارة ''Atâra'') is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 15 kilometers north of Ramallah in the central West Bank. A village of nearly 2,300 inhabitants, it is situated along a mountain ridge l ...

, south of

al-Bireh Al-Bireh, al-Birah, or el-Bira ( ar, البيرة; also known historically as Castrum Mahomeria, Magna Mahomeria, Mahomeria Major, Birra, or Beirothah) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, north of Jerusalem. It is the capital of the ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. Another is Khirbet ed-Darieh. # A town west of the Jordan, possibly the same as above, mentioned in Joshua, {{bibleverse-nb, , Joshua, 16:7, HE, which gives the borders of Ephraim within Joseph.

Notes

Hebrew Bible cities Tribe of Reuben Omrides Gilead