Medeba
מֵידְבָא · “Meidba” on the map
Where was biblical Medeba? At Madaba, in Jordan, about 55 km east of Jerusalem. I mark it certain.
The Ammonites hired thirty-two thousand chariots against David, and their allies camped before Meidba. Joab and his brother Abishai routed them. Generations later, King Mesha of Moab took the town back from Israel and carved the boast in stone.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Madaba, in Jordan
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Madaba, Mehadeba, Medaba
- Location
- 31.7193° N, 35.7932° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The name has stayed in use for nearly three thousand years. It is Medeba in the Bible, Mehadeba on the Mesha Stele, and Madaba today. On that stone Mesha says that Omri king of Israel had held the town, and that he took it back.
The text puts Meidba on the Mishor, the high tableland north of the Arnon. Joshua gives Reuben "the tableland from Medeba to Dibon," and both towns still stand on that plateau under their old names. The victory song over Sihon also reaches "to Medeba." The ancient mound lies under the center of the modern town.
In the Byzantine period Madaba was a Christian town. Its church of St George holds a 6th-century floor mosaic, the Madaba Map, the oldest surviving map of this land. Many places on this map lean on it as a witness. So the town that kept its biblical name also keeps one of the oldest guides to where the Bible's places were.
Visiting today
The Madaba Map is still in the floor of St George's Church, and the Madaba Archaeological Park is in the same town. Mount Nebo is about six miles away.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Meidba on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Mount Nebo 8 km northwest
- Heshbon 9 km north
- Beth Jeshimoth 14 km west
- Abel Shittim 18 km northwest
- Dibon 25 km south
- Aroer on the Arnon 28 km south