Mareshah
מָרֵשָׁה
Where was biblical Mareshah? At Tel Maresha, Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park, about 40 km southwest of Jerusalem. I mark it certain.
King Asa of Judah met the huge army of Zerah the Cushite in the valley below Maresha. He cried out to G-d, and the invaders broke and ran.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tel Maresha, Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Marisa, Tell Sandahanna, Tel Maresha
- Location
- 31.5931° N, 34.8986° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Start with the text. Joshua lists Maresha among the lowland towns of Judah. Rehoboam made it one of the fortresses guarding Judah's western approaches. So we are looking for a strong site in the southern Shephelah.
Eusebius placed Maresha two Roman miles from Beit Guvrin. That is exactly where this mound stands. The proof came in 1902. Next to the mound, explorers found a painted burial cave with a Greek inscription naming Apollophanes, "chief of the Sidonians at Marisa." Marisa is the Greek form of Mareshah. A name painted on a tomb wall beside the tel leaves little room for doubt.
Excavators have dug here almost continuously since the 1970s. Most of what they uncovered is later than the kings of Judah, a large Hellenistic city with thousands of underground chambers cut beneath it.
The prophets knew the town. Micah, from nearby Moresheth, played on its name. Mareshah sounds like yoresh, an heir or possessor, and Micah warned that a "possessor" was coming to take it. Another prophet, Eliezer son of Dodavahu, came from Mareshah and spoke against King Jehoshaphat's shipping venture.
Visiting today
The tel is part of Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park, along with painted Sidonian burial caves, bell caves, dovecotes and olive-press caves.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Maresha on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Lachish 6 km southwest
- Makkedah 9 km southeast
- Adullam 12 km northeast
- Socoh 12 km northeast
- Azekah 12 km north
- Gath 13 km north