Abel-Meholah

The mourning of sickness. Jdg 7:13

Abel-Mea

A´bel-Meho´lah, or Abel-Mea (Place of the dance), a town supposed to have stood near the Jordan, and some miles (Eusebius says ten) to the south of Bethshan or Scythopolis (1Ki 4:12). It is remarkable in connection with Gideon’s victory over the Midianites (Jdg 7:22), and as the birth-place of Elisha (1Ki 19:16).

A’bel-meho’lah. (meadow of the dance). In the northern part of the Jordan valley, 1Ki 4:12, to which the routed Bedouin host fled from Gideon, Jdg 7:22. Here Elisha was found at his plough by Elijah returning up the valley from Horeb. 1Ki 19:16-19.

("the plain of the dance".) The birthplace of Elisha, where he was found at his plow by Elijah returning up the Jordan valley from Horeb (1Ki 19:16). N. of the Jordan valley, S. of Bethshean (Scythopolis) (1Ki 4:12). To its neighborhood fled the Midianites routed by Gideon (Jdg 7:22). It pertained to the half tribe of Manasseh.

(Heb. Abel’ Mecholah’, מְחוֹלָה אָבֵל, meadow of dancing; Sept. Α᾿βελμεουλά and Α᾿βελμαουλά, Vul. Abelmehula and Abelneuel), a place not far from the Jordan, on the confines of Issachar and Manasseh, in the vicinity of Beth-shittah, Zeredah, and Tabbath, whither Gideon’s three hundred picked men pursued the routed Midianites (Jdg 7:22). It was the birthplace or residence of Elisha the prophet (1Ki 19:16), and lay not far from Beth-shean (1Ki 4:12); according to Eusebius (Onomast. Βηθμαελά), in the plain of the Jordan, 16 (Jerome 10) Roman miles south, probably the same with the village Abelmea mentioned by Jerome (ibid. Eusebius less correctly Α᾿βὲλ νεά) as situated between Scythopolis (Bethshean) and Neapolis (Shechem). It is also alluded to by Epiphanius (whose text has inaccurately Α᾿βελμούδ v. r. Α᾿μεμουήλ, and wrongly locates it in the tribe of Reuben), and (as Α᾿βελμαούλ) in the Pas(kal Chronicle (see Reland, Palest. p. 522). It was probably situated not far from where the Wady el-Maleh (which seems to retain a trace of the name) emerges into the Aulon or valley of the Jordan; perhaps at the ruins now called Khurbet esh-Skul’, which are on an undulating plain beside a stream (Van de Velde, Narrative. 2:340). This appears to agree with the conjectural location assigned by Schwarz (Palest. p. 159), although the places he names do not occur on any map.

ADDENDUM FROM VOLUME 11:

Abel-meholah

Tristram conjectures this to be "a spot now called Sher-habiel, a trace of the name lingering in the neighboring Wady Maleh" (Bible Places p. 229);. while Lieut. Conder locates it at "a place now called Ain Helweh, in the Jordan valley, to which the direct road led past Shunem down the valley of Jezreel’ (Tent Work, 1, 124).

Abel-Meholah (â’bel-me-hô’lah), meadow of the dance. Jdg 7:22. A town in the plain of Jordan, distinguished as the home of Elisha. 1Ki 4:12; 1Ki 19:16.

ABEL-MEHOLAH (‘meadow of the dance or circle’).—A place in the Jordan valley, the limit of Gideon’s pursuit of the Midianites (Jdg 7:22); in the administrative district of Taanach and Megiddo under Solomon (1Ki 4:12); the native place of Adriel, husband of Merab, Saul’s daughter (1Sa 18:19), and of Elisha (1Ki 19:16). The suggested identifications are uncertain. See Moore’s Judges, p. 212.

R. A. S. Macalister.

ā´bel-mē̇-hō´lah (אבל מחולה,’ābhēl m^eḥōlāh, “meadow of dancing”): The residence of Elisha the prophet (1Ki 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” (Jdg 7:22). Zererah (Zeredah) is Zarethan (2Ch 4:17; compare 1Ki 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 (Jdg 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 (1Ki 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 (1Sa 18:19; 2Sa 21:8) was a resident of Abel-meholah.