Migdal Eder ( ''Miḡdal ‘Êḏer'' , "Tower of Eder") is a tower mentioned in the biblical book of Genesis 35:21, in the context of the death of

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

's wife,

Rachel Rachel () was a Bible, Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph (Genesis), Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban (Bible), Laban. Her older siste ...

. The biblical record locates it near the present-day city of

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), and Jacob set up a pillar at her grave; it is the pillar of Rachel's tomb, which is there to this day. Israel acobjourneyed on, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. (Gen 35:19-21 NRSV)

Many have attempted to identify the exact location of the tower, but early sources differ on the location.Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, ''Christology of the Old Testament: and a commentary on the Messianic predictions'', vol 1 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1871), 454-465

Connection to the Birth of the Jewish Messiah

One scholar, Alfred Edersheim, interpreted Micah 4:8, Micah 4:8 the only other biblical reference to the tower, as a prophecy indicating that the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

would be revealed from the "tower of the flock" (''Migdal Eder'') which he claimed is connected with the town of

, southeast of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

.Alfred Edersheim, ''The Life and Times of Jesus, the Messiah''

(1883). However, this interpretation is not shared by most modern scholars. The parallelism of Hebrew poetry seems to point in another direction: "The appositional structure of the terms 'watchtower' and 'Zion' seems to negate the possibility that the 'watchtower of the flock' was a tower in the vicinity of Bethlehem ( Genesis 35:19-21)."Thomas E. McComiskey, ''Hosea, Amos, Micah'', The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Revised Edition, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 346. Instead, the thought is that this verse communicates an image of God watching over his people from Mount Zion as a shepherd watches over his flock:

shares the symbolism of the flock and ''I AMs kingship, but it advances the argument by predicting that Mount Zion, to which the flock has been regathered, will become a tower guaranteeing its security and survival as it did in David's epoch. The picture of the flock in 4:6-7A fades into that of the tower, Mount Zion, in 4:7A-8. From his watchtower a shepherd overlooked his flock and protected it against violent animals and vile thieves.Bruce K. Waltke, ''A Commentary on Micah'', (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007), 234

To support his view, Edersheim cited

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

Shekalim 7.4 and said it "leads to the conclusion, that the flocks, which pastured there, were destined for Temple-sacrifices, and, accordingly, that the shepherds, who watched over them, were not ordinary shepherds." Shekalim 7 is about how to deal with found items and, 7.4 reads:

An animal that was found between Jerusalem and Migdal Eder, or a similar distance in any direction, the males are onsideredburnt offerings. The females are onsideredpeace offerings. Rabbi Yehuda says, those which are fitting as a Pesach offering are onsideredPesach offerings if it is thirty days before the festival.

It referred to ''Migdal Eder'' as a distance marker to make a radius around Jerusalem, dictating how lost sheep within this radius could be used as offerings.Shek. vii. 4
/ref> Timothy J. Etherington, "Away in a Tower?

/ref> It does not say that sheep were pastured at the tower.

References

{{Reflist Book of Genesis Towers in Israel