Mareshah, a town in the Shephelah of Judah (Joshua 15:44), fortified by Rehoboam (2Ch.11.8) and the site of Asa's victory over Zerah the Ethiopian (2Ch.14.9-10).
Mareshah was a town located in the Shephelah (lowlands) of Judah (Joshua 15:44). It was one of the cities fortified by King Rehoboam after the division of the kingdom (2Ch.11.8). Mareshah is best known as the site of the battle between King Asa of Judah and Zerah the Ethiopian, who came against Judah with a vast army. Asa cried out to the Lord, and God granted him a decisive victory over the Ethiopians (2Ch.14.9-15). The prophet Micah, who was from Mareshah (Micah 1:1), prophesied judgment against the city, declaring that a conqueror would come against it (Micah 1:15). King Jehoshaphat of Judah joined with Ahaziah of Israel in a shipping venture at Ezion-geber, but the ships were wrecked, as prophesied by Eliezer of Mareshah (2Ch.20.35-37).
Approximate location: 31.604, 34.902 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas
(crest of a hill), one of the cities of Judah in the low country. (Joshua 15:44) It was one of the cities fortified and garrisoned by Rehoboam after the rupture with the northern kingdom. (2 Chronicles 11:8) Near it was fought the great battle between Asa and Zerah. (2 Chronicles 14:9-12) It is mentioned once or twice in the history of the Maccabaean war of independence. 2 Macc. 12:35. About 110 B.C. it was taken from the Idumaeans by John Hyrcanus. It was in ruins in the fourth century, when Eusebius and Jerome describe it as in the second mile from Eleutheropolis. South-southwest of Beitjibrin—in all probability Eleutheropolis-and it little over a Roman mile therefrom is a site called Marash, which is possibly the representative of the ancient Mareshah.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
6 verses in 3 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H4762
Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah—nine cities, along with their villages.
Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,
Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots, and they advanced as far as Mareshah.
So Asa marched out against him and lined up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.
Then Eliezer son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the LORD has destroyed your works.” So the ships were wrecked and were unable to sail to Tarshish.
I will again bring a conqueror against you, O dweller of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.