Makkedah
מַקֵּדָה
Where was biblical Makkedah? At Khirbet el-Qom, west of Hebron (proposed), about 35 km southwest of Jerusalem. I mark it debated. The case for the main rival site is below.
The five Amorite kings ran from the battle at Gibeon and hid in a cave at Makkedah. Joshua had great stones rolled over its mouth, finished the chase, and then brought the kings out to face judgment.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Khirbet el-Qom, west of Hebron (proposed)
- How sure
- Debated Two or more serious candidates.
- Other names
- Maqqedah, Khirbet el-Qom, Khirbet el-Kom
- Location
- 31.5345° N, 34.9665° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Nobody knows for sure where Makkedah was. The Bible gives two clues. Israel chased the kings "as far as Azekah and as far as Makkedah," and Joshua's town list puts Makkedah in the lowland district around Lachish. So it should lie in the Shephelah, south of Azekah and probably not far from Lachish.
The map follows the case for Khirbet el-Qom, a ruin on the eastern edge of the Shephelah, about 14 km west of Hebron and 9 km east of Lachish. The evidence is written. A group of inscribed sherds from the Persian period, many of them apparently from this area, mention a place called Maqqedah. A Hebrew inscription from the time of the kings, bought on the antiquities market and probably from Khirbet el-Qom, names it too. The site is also known for its tombs from the 8th century BCE, which carry Hebrew inscriptions of their own.
That is a real case, but it has a gap. No inscription from a controlled dig at the site names Makkedah. Until one turns up, Khirbet el-Qom remains a proposal.
Eusebius put Makkedah eight Roman miles east of Beit Guvrin, though that direction sits badly with Joshua's story and may be a copyist's slip. Khirbet Beit Maqdum lies roughly where his distance points, and its name sounds like Makkedah, but it fits the campaign less well. Read his "east" as "north" and you reach Tell es-Safi, which most identify as Gath.
Visiting today
Khirbet el-Qom is an unrestored ruin with little to see. Its inscriptions are in museums.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Makkedah on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Mareshah 9 km northwest
- Lachish 12 km west
- Debir (Kiriath Sepher) 12 km southeast
- Hebron 13 km east
- Adullam 13 km north
- Juttah 16 km southeast