Abel Meholah
אָבֵל מְחוֹלָה
Where was biblical Abel Meholah? At Tel Abu Sus or Tel Sakut, near Moshav Mehola, about 45 km south of Tiberias. I mark it debated. The case for the main rival site is below.
Elijah found Elisha here, plowing behind twelve yoke of oxen, and threw his cloak over him. Elisha slaughtered the oxen, cooked them on the wooden yokes, fed the people, and followed the prophet.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tel Abu Sus or Tel Sakut, near Moshav Mehola
- How sure
- Debated Two or more serious candidates.
- Other names
- Abel-meholah, Avel Mehola, Abel Mechola, Abelmea, Abelmaela, Tel Abu Sus
- Location
- 32.3765° N, 35.5521° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The Bible gives two clues. Solomon's district list runs "from Beit She'an to Abel Meholah." And when Gideon's three hundred blew their shofars, the Midianite camp fled toward the Jordan fords, as far as the edge of Abel Meholah. Both point to the Jordan Valley south of Beit She'an.
Eusebius narrows it down. He puts the town about ten Roman miles south of Beit She'an. That brings you to the stretch where Wadi el-Malih reaches the river, and the wadi's name may echo Meholah.
Two mounds by the fords are the leading candidates, and the map's one label covers both. Tel Abu Sus is a prominent mound right by the crossing. Its neighbor Tel Sakut sits beside the spring of Ein Sakut. The land around them is fertile and well watered. Twelve yoke is twenty-four oxen. That is a rich farm in rich land.
Neither tell has been excavated. Until someone digs, it's impossible to know which mound, if either, was Elisha's home. The question stays open.
Some have looked for Abel Meholah east of the river, in Jordan, but most scholars now prefer the western side. Others search farther up the Malih stream or inland on the road from Shechem to Beit She'an. The inland ruins lack the valley farmland the story needs.
Visiting today
Tel Abu Sus is inside a closed military zone on the Jordan border. Ein Sakut and Tel Sakut can be reached from Route 90.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Abel Meholah on the interactive map →
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- Succoth 22 km south
- Tirzah 22 km southwest
- Mahanaim 25 km southeast