Metheg Ammah

METHEG AMMAH (mē'thĕg ăm'a, the bridle of the metropolis). A town David took from the hands of the Philistines (2Sam.8.1).

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METHEG-AMMAH mē’ thĕg ăm’ ə (מֶ֥תֶג הָאַמָּ֖ה, metheg-ha-’ammah). A name or phrase occurring in 2 Samuel 8:1, where it is said that David took Metheg-hammah out of the hand of the Philistines. The ASV has tr. the name as “the bridle of the mother city.” The parallel passage (1 Chron 18:1) reads that David took Gath and its villages out of the hand of the Philistines. KB lists the name as unexplained.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

me-theg-am’-a, meth-eg-am’-a (mathegh ha-’ammah, "bridle of the metropolis"; Septuagint ten aphorismenen): It is probable that the place-name Metheg-Ammah in 2Sa 8:1 the King James Version should be rendered as in the Revised Version (British and American), "the bridle of the mother city," i.e. Gath, since we find in the parallel passage in 1Ch 18:1 gath ubhenotheha, "Gath and her daughters," i.e. daughter towns. The Septuagint has an entirely different reading: "and David took the tribute out of the hand of the Philistines," showing that they had a different text from what we now have in the Hebrew. The text is evidently corrupt. If a place is intended its site is unknown, but it must have been in the Philistine plain and in the vicinity of Gath.