Abel Beth Maacah
אָבֵל בֵּית־מַעֲכָה · “Abel Beit Maacha” on the map
Where was biblical Abel Beth Maacah? At Tel Abel Beth Maacah, just south of Metula, about 50 km north of Tiberias. I mark it certain.
A wise woman stood on this city's wall and talked Joab out of destroying it.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tel Abel Beth Maacah, just south of Metula
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Abel-beth-maachah, Abel-beth-maacah, Abel Beth Maachah, Abel, Abil al-Qamh, Abil el-Qameh, Tel Avel Beit Ma'akha
- Location
- 33.2603° N, 35.5803° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Joab was chasing Sheba son of Bichri, who had raised the north against David and fled as far as he could go. Joab's army piled a siege ramp against Abel and began to batter the wall. The woman called down from the rampart. She reminded Joab that Abel was "a mother city in Israel," a place people came to for advice. Then she persuaded her own townspeople. They threw Sheba's head over the wall, and the city was saved.
The old name held on. The tel and the Arab village beside it were called Abil al-Qamh, "Abel of the wheat."
The geography explains the rest. This high mound sits at the top of the Hula Valley and guards the road that comes down from Ijon and Lebanon. An army from the north had to pass it. That is why the Bible's lists of conquests run in the same order. Ben-hadad of Aram took Ijon, Dan and Abel-beth-maacah. Tiglath-pileser of Assyria took Ijon, then Abel-beth-maacah, then the rest of the north, and carried the people of Naphtali off to Assyria.
Excavators uncovered a large city of the Bronze and Iron Ages. One storage jar from the time of the kings carries an Israelite name, Benayau, written in Old Hebrew script. It is a small find that says a lot. In a border town that Israel and Aram fought over, someone was writing his name in Hebrew.
Visiting today
The tel rises beside the road just south of Metula, on the Lebanese border. It is unrestored, with excavation areas you can see from the road and no visitor facilities.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Abel Beit Maacha on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Dan 7 km east
- Kedesh Naphtali 17 km south
- Hazor 27 km south
- Mount Hermon 29 km northeast
- Zarephath 34 km northwest
- Tyre 35 km west