EASTON’S BIBLE DICTIONARY (1897 EDITION)
Abel-beth-maachah – meadow of the house of Maachah, a city in the north of Palestine, in the neighbourhood of Dan and Ijon, in the tribe of Naphtali.
It was a place of considerable strength and importance.
It is called a “mother in Israel”, i.e., a metropolis (2 Sam. 20:19).
It was besieged
- by Joab (2 Sam. 20:14),
- by Benhadad (1 Kings 15:20), and
- by Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 15:29) about B.C. 734.
It is elsewhere called Abel-maim, meadow of the waters, (2 Chr. 16:4).
Its site is occupied by the modern Abil or Abil-el-kamh, on a rising ground to the east of the brook Derdarah, which flows through the plain of Huleh into the Jordan, about 6 miles to the west-north-west of Dan.
