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Moladah

MOLADAH (mŏl'a-da, Heb. môlādhâh, birth). One of the cities mentioned in Josh.15.1-Josh.15.63 and Josh.19.1-Josh.19.51 in the lists both of Judah and of Simeon. It lies about ten miles (seventeen km.) east of Beersheba. Now called Khirbet-el-Milh. At the Restoration, Judah occupied it (Neh.11.26).



MOLADAH, mŏl’ ə də (Heb. מוֹלָדָֽה, generation). A city in the Negev, not far from Beer-Sheba (Josh 15:26), allotted to the Simeonites (Josh 19:2; 1 Chron 4:28). In the postexilic period Moladah was one of the villages where “the people of Judah” settled (Neh 11:26). This region was afterward occupied by the Edomites, and Molada became an Idumaean fortress, called Μάλαδα (Jos. Antiq. 18. VI. 2). Eusebius and Jerome describe it as being twenty Roman m. to the S of Hebron on the road to Aila (E-lath). The site is uncertain. Some scholars identify it with Tell el Milh, fourteen m. SE of Beer-sheba, twenty-two m. SW of Hebron; according to others it is the ruins of El-Eksefa, E of Beer-sheba. The idea that Moladah was a shrine where women came to pray for children, cannot be deduced from the name as such. Since one of the descendants of Jerahmeel bore the name Molid (1 Chron 2:29), it has been suggested that Moladah was a part of the Jerahmeelite settlement, which is known to have been in the S of Judah (1 Sam 27:10). This, however, is uncertain.

Bibliography

D. Baly, Geographical Companion to the Bible (1963).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

mol’-a-da, mo-la’-da (moladhah; Molada): A place in the far south (Negebh) of Judah, toward Edom (Jos 15:26), reckoned to Simeon (Jos 19:2; 1Ch 4:28). It was repopulated after the captivity (Ne 11:26). It is mentioned always in close proximity to Beersheba. Moladah is probably identical with Malatha, a city in Idumea to which Agrippa at one time withdrew himself (Josephus, Ant, XVIII, vi, 2). The site of this latter city has by Robinson and others been considered to be the ruins and wells of Tell el-Milch, some 13 miles to the East of Beersheba and some 7 miles Southwest of Arad. The chief difficulty is the statement of Eusebius and Jerome that Malatha was "by Jattir," i.e. `Attir; if this is correct the Tell el-Milch is impossible, as it is 10 miles from `Attir, and we have no light at all on the site. See City of Salt. For Tell el-Milch see PEF, III, 415-16, Sh XXV.