Abel-Meholah
Abel-Meholah [1]
ā´bel -mē̇ -hō´lah ( אבל מחולה , 'ābhēl meḥōlāh , "meadow of dancing"): The residence of Elisha the prophet ( 1 Kings 19:16 ). When Gideon and his 300 broke their pitchers in the camp of Midian, the Midianites in their first panic fled down the valley of Jezreel and the Jordan "toward Zererah" ( Judges 7:22 ). Zererah (Zeredah) is Zarethan ( 2 Chronicles 4:17; compare 1 Kings 7:46 ), separated from Succoth by the clay ground where Solomon made castings for the temple. The wing of the Midianites whom Gideon pursued crossed the Jordan at Succoth ( Judges 8:4 ). This would indicate that Abel-meholah was thought of as a tract of country with a "border," West of the Jordan, some miles South of Beth-shean, in the territory either of Issachar or West Manasseh.
Abel-meholah is also mentioned in connection with the jurisdiction of Baana, one of Solomon's twelve commissary officers ( 1 Kings 4:12 ) as below Jezreel, with Beth-shean and Zarethan in the same list.
Jerome and Eusebius speak of Abel-meholah as a tract of country and a town in the Jordan valley, about ten Roman miles South of Beth-shean. At just that point the name seems to be perpetuated in that of the Wady Malib, and Abel-meholah is commonly located near where that Wady, or the neighboring Wady Helweh, comes down into the Jordan valley.
Presumably Adriel the Meholathite ( 1 Samuel 18:19; 2 Samuel 21:8 ) was a resident of Abel-meholah.
