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Minnith

MINNITH (mĭn'ĭth, Heb. minnîth). A city of the Ammonites that Jephthah defeated while overcoming this nation. It and Abel Keramim were the easternmost limit of Jephthah’s victories (Judg.11.33). It lay four miles (seven km.) north of Heshbon in the tribe of Reuben. It was a source of wheat for the markets of Tyre (Ezek.27.17).



MINNITH mĭn’ ĭth (Heb. מִנִּ֜ית), one of the “twenty cities” of the Ammonites which Jephthah conquered (Judg 11:33). The precise location is unknown. According to the description of Jephthah’s campaign, which took him “from Aroer (or Nahr Amman, v. 26) to the neighborhood of (lit. ‘till you come to’) Minnith,” this city must have been the easternmost limit of his victories. In his Onomastica (140:3; ed. Lagarde) Eusebius identified it with a place called Manith, four m. from Heshbon on the road to Philadelphia (i.e., Ammān or Rabbah of the Ammonites). It is identified with Khirbet umm el-Hanafish, halfway between Heshbon and el-Yadudeh, or with Khirbet-Hamzeh four m. NE of Heshbon. Ezekiel 27:17 mentions the “wheat of Minnith,” stressing its exceptional quality (cf. 2 Chron 27:5). There is no reason to delete this reference as is done in the RSV.

Bibliography

D. Baly, The Geography of the Bible (1957).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

After Jephthah defeated the Ammonites, he is said to have smitten them from Aroer "until thou come to Minnith" (Jud 11:33). Eusebius, Onomasticon mentions a place called Maanith, 4 Roman miles from Heshbon, on the road to Philadelphia (`Amman), and locates Abelcheramim, which is mentioned with Minnith, 7 miles from Philadelphia, without indicating the direction. Some travelers have spoken of a Menjah, 7 miles East of Heshbon, but of this place Tristram (Land of Moab, 140) could find no trace. The same place appears to be mentioned in Eze 27:17 as supplying wheat, which figures in the trade between Judah and Tyre. There are really no reliable data on which to suggest an identification, while there are grave reasons to suspect the integrity of the text.