TEKOAH
TEKOAH (
Θεκωέ 1
Maccab. 9.33;
Θεκώα or
Θεκουέ J. Vit. 75), a town of Palestine in Judah, to the south of, Bethlehem.
It was the residence of the wise woman who pleaded in behalf of Absalom; was fortified by Rehoboam; was the birthplace of the prophet Amos, and gave, its name to the adjacent desert on the east. (2
Sam. 14.2; 2
Chron. 11.6;
Amos, 1.1; 2
Chron. 20.20; 1
Macc. 9.33.) Jerome describes Tekoah as situated upon a hill, 6 miles south of Bethlehem, from which city it was visible. (Hieron.
Prooem. in Amos. and
Comm. in Jerem. 6.1.), Its site still bears the name of
Tekû‘a, and is described by Robinson as an elevated hill, not steep, but broad on the top, and covered with ruins to the extent of four or five acres.
These consist chiefly of the foundations of houses built of squared stones; and near the middle of the site are the remains of a Greek church. (Robinson,
Bibl. Res. vol. i. p. 486, 2nd ed.)
