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MARESHAH (Place)
City (Greek Marisa; Josephus, “Marissa”) on the road from the coastal plain of Judah toward Hebron and Jerusalem. Remains of Jewish pottery indicate occupation from at least 800 BC. The site is now called Tel Mareshah.
At Israel’s occupation of Canaan, Mareshah was allotted by Joshua to Judah (Jos 15:44). Later, at the division of the kingdom, Rehoboam fortified it as a protective outpost covering Jerusalem from the southwest, from which many invaders were to approach (2 Chr 11:8). Zerah the Ethiopian, with a million men and three hundred chariots, penetrated as far as Mareshah and was defeated there by Asa (14:9). In the following reign, that of Jehoshaphat, the prophet Eliezer, born at Mareshah, foretold the destruction of the proud fleet the king had built (20:37).
The prophet Micah, who was born at Moresheth-gath (a few miles to the north), uttered a moving elegy upon the fate of the regions he knew from boyhood, as the Assyrians approached (whether under Sennacherib, 701 BC, or Sargon, 711 BC). Punning upon each familiar place-name, he warned Mareshah of a coming “possessor” (Mi 1:15).