Mephaath

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Joshua 21:37

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("beauty".) A town of Reuben (Joshua 13:17-18; Joshua 21:37); a dependency of Heshbon, N. of Amen, in the "downs" (mishor ), the modern Belka (Jeremiah 48:21). Assigned to the Merarite Levites. Regained by Moab.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Joshua 13:18Joshua 21:371 Chronicles 6:79Jeremiah 48:21

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

MEPHAATH. A city of Reuben ( Joshua 13:18 ); assigned to the Levites ( Joshua 21:37 , 1 Chronicles 6:79 ); a Moabite city in Jeremiah 48:21 . In the 4th cent. a.d. it is said to have been the station of a Roman garrison.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Levitical city in Reuben, east of the Jordan. Joshua 13:18; Joshua 21:37; 1 Chronicles 6:79; Jeremiah 48:21 . Not identified

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Meph'a-ath. (splendor height). City of the Reubenites, one of the towns independently at Heshhon, Joshua 13:18, lying in the district of the Mishor. Compare Joshua 13:17 and Jeremiah 48:21. Authorized Version, "plain," which probably answered to the modern Belka. It was one of the cities allotted, with their suburbs, to the Merarite Levites. Joshua 21:37; 1 Chronicles 6:79. It's site is uncertain.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

mef´ā́ - ath , mḗ - fā´ath ( מפעת , mēpha‛ath and מיפעת , mēypha‛ath , מופעת , mōpha‛ath  ; Codex Vaticanus, Μαιφάαθ , Maipháath , Μηφάαθ , Mēpháath ): A city of the Amorites in the territory allotted to Reuben, named with Kedemoth and Kiriathaim ( Joshua 13:18 ), and given to the Merarite Levites (Joshua 21:37; 1 Chronicles 6:79 ). It appears again as a Moabite town in Jeremiah 48:21 . It was known to Eusebius and Jerome (Onom) as occupied by a Roman garrison, but the site has been lost.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

[some Mepha'ath] (Hebrews Meypha'ath, מֵיפִעִת, prob. splendor; once defectively written מֵפִעִת . Joshua 13:18, and once [Kethib] מוֹפִעִת, Jeremiah 48:21; Sept. Μηφάαθ in Josh., Φαάθ v. r. Μαεφλά in Chron. And Μαφάς v. r. Μωφάθ in Jer.), a Levitical (Merarite) city (Joshua 21:37; 1 Chronicles 6:79) of the tribe of Reuben (Joshua 13:18), doubtless originally (like Heshbon, of which it formed a dependency) in the hands of the Amorites (Numbers 21:26), but afterwards belonging to Moab (Jeremiah 48:21); probably situated near Kedemoth and Jahazah, in connection with which it is always mentioned. Eusebius (Onomast.) calls it Mephath (Μηφάθ), and states that it was still occupied by a Roman garrison as a defence against the Arabs of the neighboring desert. As the name implies a conspicuous position, the site may possibly correspond with that of the modern village with ruins on an eminence marked as Umn el- Weled on Van de Velde's Map, east of Medeba. "The extended, and possibly later, form of the name which occurs in Chronicles and Jeremiah, as if Mey Phaath, ‘ waters of Phaath,' may be, as in other cases, an attempt to fix an intelligible meaning on an archaic or foreign word;" although the fuller form appears to be radical (so both Gesenius and Ftirst, from

יָפִע, to glitter, be eminent).