Medeba
Waters of quiet, an ancient Moabite town (Num 21:30). It was assigned to the tribe of Reuben (Josh 13:16). Here was fought the great battle in which Joab defeated the Ammonites and their allies (1 Chr 19:7–15; comp. 2 Sam 10:6–14). In the time of Isaiah (Isa 15:2) the Moabites regained possession of it from the Ammonites. (See Hanun.)
The ruins of this important city, now Madeba or Madiyabah, are seen about 8 miles south-west of Heshbon, and 14 east of the Dead Sea. Among these are the ruins of what must have been a large temple, and of three cisterns of considerable extent, which are now dry. These cisterns may have originated the name Medeba, “waters of quiet.” (See Omri.)
Named in the Bible
5 verses
- Numbers 21:30 We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba.
- Joshua 13:9 From Aroer, that is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon;
- Joshua 13:16 And their coast was from Aroer, that is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain by Medeba;
- 1 Chronicles 19:7 So they hired thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of Maachah and his people; who came and pitched before Medeba. And the children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle.
- Isaiah 15:2 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
