Abel-beth-maachah

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This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.

Abel-beth-maachah - meadow of the house of Maachah, a city in the north of Israel, in the neighbourhood of Dan and Ijon, in the tribe of Naphtali.

It was a place of considerable strength and importance. It is called a "mother in Israel", i.e., a metropolis (2 Sam. 20:19). It was besieged by Joab (2 Sam. 20:14), by Benhadad (1 Kings 15:20), and by Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 15:29) about 734 BC. It is elsewhere called Abel-maim, meadow of the waters, (2 Chr. 16:4).

Its site is occupied by the modern Abil or Abil-el-kamh, on a rising ground to the east of the brook Derdarah, which flows through the plain of Huleh into the Jordan, about 6 miles to the west-north-west of Dan.