town or village

Tekoa

• Today Khirbet Teku’a

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Battles and sieges

1. c. 850 BCJehoshaphat's enemies destroy one another in the wilderness of Tekoa 2 Chr 20:20–26
   Judah under Jehoshaphat, singers before the army, against Moab, Ammon and Mount Seir. The invaders turn on each other and none escapes; Judah gathers the spoil for three days.

History

Tekoa stood on a hill at Khirbet Tequ', about 8 km south of Bethlehem and 16 km south of Jerusalem, where the farmland of the Judaean hills gives way to the desert that bears its name. The name lives on in the nearby Arab village of Tuqu'. Remains on the hill run from the Iron Age, when Tekoa was a town of Judah, to the Byzantine period.

Joab fetched a wise woman from Tekoa, who with a made-up story of her own sons moved David to bring Absalom home. Ira son of Ikkesh the Tekoite was one of David's mighty men and the captain for the sixth month. Rehoboam fortified Tekoa together with Bethlehem and Etam, and Jehoshaphat's army went out into the wilderness of Tekoa to meet the Moabites and Ammonites.

The book of Amos opens with "The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa"; he spoke against the northern kingdom of Israel in the days of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam son of Joash, in the eighth century BC. Jeremiah called for the trumpet to be blown in Tekoa as disaster came from the north. After the exile the Tekoites repaired two stretches of Jerusalem's wall, though "their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord".

About 160 BC Jonathan and Simon Maccabeus fled from Bacchides into the wilderness of Tekoa. In the war against Rome Simon bar Giora camped at Tekoa, and Titus sent Josephus there to see whether it was fit for a camp; on the way back Josephus recognised three men he knew among the crucified and had them taken down, but only one survived. In the fourth century Eusebius knew Tekoa as a village where the tomb of Amos was shown, and a church was later built on the site.

Scripture: 2 Sam 14:2–23; 2 Sam 23:26; 1 Chr 27:9; 2 Chr 11:5–6; 2 Chr 20:1; 2 Chr 20:20; Amos 1:1; Amos 7:14–15; Jer 6:1; Neh 3:5; Neh 3:27

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (14)

2 Sam 14:2

And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead:

2 Sam 14:4

And when the woman of Tekoah spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king.

2 Sam 14:9

And the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father’s house: and the king and his throne be guiltless.

2 Sam 23:26

Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite,

1 Chr 2:24

And after that Hezron was dead in Caleb-ephratah, then Abiah Hezron’s wife bare him Ashur the father of Tekoa.

1 Chr 4:5

And Ashur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah.

1 Chr 11:28

Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, Abi-ezer the Antothite,

1 Chr 27:9

The sixth captain for the sixth month was Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite: and in his course were twenty and four thousand.

2 Chr 11:6

He built even Beth-lehem, and Etam, and Tekoa,

2 Chr 20:20

And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.

Neh 3:5

And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.

Neh 3:27

After them the Tekoites repaired another piece, over against the great tower that lieth out, even unto the wall of Ophel.

Jer 6:1

O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.

Amos 1:1

The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

King James Version