MEDEBA mĕd’ ə bə (Heb. מֵֽידְבָֽא, possibly water of quiet), an ancient Moabite town in Trans-Jordan located on a tableland c. sixteen m. SE of the mouth of the Jordan, six m. S of Heshbon. The modern village on the site is called Mâdabâ. The first Biblical reference to Medeba is found in a victory song over Moab (Num 21:30), where Medeba is mentioned as one of the cities taken from Moab by Sihon, king of the Amorites. After the victory of Israel over Sihon (21:21-26), Medeba was assigned to the tribe of Reuben (Josh 13:9, 16). The claim to this land often was disputed by the Reubenites, Ammonites and Moabites (cf. Denis Baly, The Geography of the Bible [1957], pp. 30, 172). The Ammonites, after the disgraceful treatment of David’s messengers, united with the Aramaeans in a campaign against Joab and Abishai before Medeba; they were successfully defeated (1 Chron 19:7). According to the Mesha Inscr. (ANET, p. 320) Medeba had belonged to Omri and Achab, but Mesha, king of Moab, captured it (Line 8) and had it rebuilt (Line 30). The prophet Isaiah names Medeba in an oracle against Moab (Isaiah 15:2). At the time of the Maccabees Medeba belonged to the Nabataeans. According to 1 Maccabees 9:36-42 John, the son of Mattathias, was murdered by a man from Medeba. John’s brothers, Jonathan and Simon, avenged their brother’s death. After the death of Antiochus the city was taken by Hyrcanus, and finally was captured by Alexander Jannaeus, although Hyrcanus II promised to restore it to Aretas, king of Arabia (cf. Jos., Antiq., 13, 5 section 4, 9 section 1; 14, 1 section 4).

In the Byzantine period Medeba was apparently a wealthy city, for several of the mosaic pavements dating from this time are still partially preserved here. Today the fame of Medeba rests upon its mosaic map of the Holy Land, dating from the late 6th cent., but first discovered in 1884 (see M. Avi-Yonah, The Madaba Mosaic Map [1954]). Unfortunately, large portions of the map were damaged or destroyed during the construction of a new church on the old site. The mosaic map was included in the pavement of this church.

Bibliography D. Baly, The Geography of the Bible (1957); idem., Geographical Companion to the Bible (1963).