Moresheth-Gath (), also Moreshet-Gat, was a town of the

tribe of Judah According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe of Judah (, ''Shevet Yehudah'') was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel, named after Judah (son of Jacob), Judah, the son of Jacob. Judah was one of the tribes to take its place in Canaan, occupying it ...

ancient Israel The history of ancient Israel and Judah spans from the Israelite highland settlement, early appearance of the Israelites in Canaan's hill country during the late second millennium BCE, to the establishment and subsequent downfall of the two ...

mentioned in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. It was located in the

Shephelah The Shephelah () or Shfela (), or the Judaean Foothills (), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel stretching over between the Judaean Mountains and the Coastal Plain. The different use of the term "Jud ...

region between

Lachish Lachish (; ; ) was an ancient Canaanite and later Israelite city in the Shephelah ("lowlands of Judea") region of Canaan on the south bank of the Lakhish River mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. The current '' tell'' by that name, kn ...

and Achzib.

Etymology

The name ''Moresheth-Gath'' appears only once in the Hebrew Scriptures, inscribed in a verse taken from . Biblical exegetes, Avraham ibn Ezra and

David Kimhi ''Cervera Bible'', David Kimhi's Grammar Treatise David Kimhi (, also Kimchi or Qimḥi) (1160–1235), also known by the Hebrew acronym as the RaDaK () (Rabbi David Kimhi), was a medieval rabbi, biblical commentator, philosopher, and grammarian ...

, both explain the word as being "a place-name in the land of the Philistines," Kimhi adding that the name implies "the inheritance of Gath," namely, the city of Gath which was captured by David and which came into his inheritance (); ''moresheth'', in Hebrew, being derived from the Hebrew ''yerushah'' (= lit. "inheritance").''Mikra'ot Gedolot, with 32 commentaries'', Twelve Minor Prophets, Vagshal Publishers, Jerusalem, s.v. Micah 1:14

Jonathan ben Uzziel Jonathan ben Uzziel () was one of the 80 ''tannaim'' who studied under Hillel the Elder during the time of Roman-ruled Judea. Jonathan ben Uzziel is mentioned several times in the Talmud. Jonathan rendered an Aramaic translation (targum) of the ...

Aramaic Targum A targum (, ''interpretation'', ''translation'', ''version''; plural: targumim) was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ) that a professional translator ( ''mǝṯurgǝmān'') would give in the common language o ...

, on the same verse, does not write ''Moreshet'' as a proper noun, but rather explains the word as a verb, meaning, "those who inherit Gath" (), which is also the same approach taken by Rashi, in his commentary on the verse. Others have argued that the name Moresheth-Gath means "possession of Gath", and that since Gath was the city of origin of

Goliath Goliath ( ) was a Philistines, Philistine giant in the Book of Samuel. Descriptions of Goliath's giant, immense stature vary among biblical sources, with texts describing him as either or tall. According to the text, Goliath issued a challen ...

, it has been speculated that Moresheth held a subservient relationship with the

Philistine Philistines (; Septuagint, LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philist ...

city. Wellhausen renders the passage in Micah "Thou must let go Moresheth, O Gath."

History

Later scholars of biblical literature have understood Moresheth-Gath to be a place-name written in the

construct state In Afro-Asiatic languages, the first noun in a genitive phrase that consists of a possessed noun followed by a possessor noun often takes on a special morphological form, which is termed the construct state (Latin ''status constructus''). For ex ...

, meaning, "Maresha of Gath". Maresha is mentioned as the home town of the prophet Micah in the biblical

Book of Micah The Book of Micah is the sixth of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The book has seven chapters. Ostensibly, it records the sayings of Micah, whose name is ''Mikayahu'' (), meaning "Who is like Yahweh?", an 8th-century BCE prophet f ...

and the

Book of Jeremiah The Book of Jeremiah () is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the second of the Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. The superscription at chapter Jeremiah 1#Superscription, Jeremiah 1:1–3 identifies the book as "th ...

. The town was possibly also connected with Eliezer the prophet, and may have been one of

Rehoboam Rehoboam (; , , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the Kingdom of Judah after the split of the united Kingdom of Israel. He was a son of and the successor to Solomon and a grandson of David. In the account of I Ki ...

's fortified towns Trent Butler
Holman Bible Dictionary
/ref> When mentioned in the

, it is often in connection with

Keilah Keilah () was a city in the lowlands of the Kingdom of Judah. It is now a ruin known as Khirbet Qeyla near the modern village of Qila, Hebron, east of Bayt Jibrin and about west of Kharas.. History Late Bronze The earliest historical record ...

, Achzib and

Maresha Maresha was an Iron Age city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, whose remains have been excavated at Tell Sandahanna (Arabic name), an Tell (archaeology), archaeological mound or 'tell' renamed after its identification to Tel Maresha (). The ancient ...

h. It may also be the city Muchrashti, mentioned in the Amarna letters, and not coincidentally, as the town was located on an important route to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and the south, explaining its fortification by

. Its strategic location led to its capture by

Sennacherib Sennacherib ( or , meaning "Sin (mythology), Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705BC until his assassination in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynasty, Sennacherib is one of the most famous A ...

in his attack on Judah in 701 BC. Centuries later, both

Vespasian Vespasian (; ; 17 November AD 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolida ...

and

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

camped nearby on the eve of sacking

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 ...

Location

* Moresheth-Gath has been tentatively identified as ''

Tell ej-Judeideh Tell may refer to: *Tell (archaeology), a type of archaeological site *Tell (name), a name used as a given name and a surname * Tell (poker), a subconscious behavior that can betray information to an observant opponent Arts, entertainment, and ...

'', about north of Beit Guvrin and 9.7

kilometre The kilometre (SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, American and Philippine English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is the ...

s southeast of

Tell es-Safi Tell es-Safi (, "White hill"; , ''Tel Tzafit'') was an Arab Palestinian village, located in the Shephelah region on the southern banks of Wadi 'Ajjur, northwest of Hebron, which had its Arab population expelled during the 1948 Arab–Israeli w ...

, which was excavated in 1898–1900 by F. Bliss and R.A.S. Macalister. * Jerome places Maresha a little to the East of

Eleutheropolis Bayt Jibrin or Beit Jibrin ( lit. 'House of the Powerful') was an Arab village in the Hebron Subdistrict of British Mandatory Palestine, in what is today the State of Israel, which was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was ...

( Beit Guvrin). The ruins of a village between one and two miles East of Beit Jibrin would fit his description, ''viz''. ''Tel Sandahannah'', and which has positively been identified as

, based on a funerary inscription. Jerome says a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

was built over Micah's tomb.

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

, gives similar location. Conversely, ''Tell ej-Judeideh'' lies to the north of Eleutheropolis. * The

Madaba Map The Madaba Map, also known as the Madaba Mosaic Map, is part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church of Saint George in Madaba, Jordan. The mosaic map depicts an area from Lebanon in the north to the Nile Delta in the south, and fro ...

shows a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

called Morasthi to the north of

, near a church of St. Micah. Scholars have noted that the source of the Madaba map is Eusebius' ''

Onomasticon Onomasticon may refer to: *Onomasticon (Eusebius) *Onomasticon of Amenope *Onomasticon of Joan Coromines *Onomasticon of Julius Pollux Julius Pollux (, ''Ioulios Polydeukes''; fl. 2nd century) was a Greeks, Greek scholar and rhetorician from Naucr ...

''. The word "Morashti" is a noun showing that the person (in this case Micah) came from the village Maresha, but is erroneously used by Eusebius as a place-name in itself. The biblical verses referring to this name speak of "Micah the Morasthite," and where the

in Micah 1:1 translates the sense as meaning, "Michah of Maresha." * Some have believed Moresheth-Gath to have been in the vicinity of

Mareshah Maresha was an Iron Age city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, whose remains have been excavated at Tell Sandahanna (Arabic name), an archaeological mound or 'tell' renamed after its identification to Tel Maresha (). The ancient Judahite city bec ...

. Although identification of Moresheth-Gath with

is discounted by Eusebius' time, there still remains some support for the site being none other than Maresha. * Some scholars have identified Tell Khirbat al-Bayḍā approximately 6 km northeast of

with Moresheth-Gath. While others suggest Tel-Goded to be Moresheth-Gath.Moresheth Gath
in Bible Places, also in "The Land of the Bible, A historical geography", page 439, by Yohanan Aharoni Tel-Goded is today's Modern Hebrew name of the Tell formerly called ''Tell ej-Judeideh'' and lies exactly 9.7

s southeast of

References

{{coord, 31.6334, N, 34.9166, E, source:wikidata, display=title Hebrew Bible cities Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea Philistine cities

Etymology

History

Location

See also

References