Amad
Amad is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Galilee in modern-day Israel. Known today as Mount Carmel. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Amad appears in Joshua 19:26 as one of the towns within the tribal inheritance of Asher, listed alongside Alammelech, Misheal, and Carmel as border towns defining the southern portion of Asher's territory. The tribe of Asher occupied the fertile coastal strip of northwestern Canaan, stretching from the Carmel headland northward toward Phoenicia, a territory renowned for its agricultural abundance. The blessing of Jacob in Genesis 49:20 celebrated Asher's rich provision: 'Asher's food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king.' Amad's location near Mount Carmel placed it within a region of exceptional importance throughout biblical history — Carmel was the site of Elijah's dramatic confrontation with the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). As with many of the smaller Asherite towns, Amad appears only in the allotment list and left no further trace in the narrative texts of the Old Testament, yet its inclusion affirms the thoroughness of the divine land grant to each of Israel's twelve tribes.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The identification of Amad with a site near Mount Carmel is plausible given its positioning in the Joshua 19 border list alongside other Asherite towns in the Carmel region. No site has been definitively identified as biblical Amad through excavation. The Carmel range and its surrounding foothills have been surveyed as part of broader research into western Galilee and the Carmel Coast settlement history. The area preserves sites from the Bronze and Iron Ages, and the Carmel region itself has yielded important prehistoric finds at caves such as el-Tabun and es-Skhul. For the Iron Age specifically, Megiddo and Tel Dor on the coast provide the most detailed stratigraphic sequences in the broader area, though neither is identified with Amad.
Verse Appearances (1)
Josh
Sources: ISBE Encyclopedia · OpenBible Geocoding (CC BY) · Pleiades Gazetteer View all →