Madmannah
Madmannah is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Khirbet Tatrit. It appears across 2 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Madmannah appears in two Old Testament contexts. In Joshua 15:31, it is listed among the towns allotted to the tribe of Judah in the Negev district, grouped with other settlements in the southernmost portion of Judah's territorial inheritance. This places Madmannah in the semi-arid region between the Judean hill country and the wilderness of the Negev, a frontier zone that served as a buffer between settled Israelite territory and the desert-dwelling peoples to the south. The city appears again in 1 Chronicles 2:49, within the genealogy of Caleb, where Shaaph is named as the father of Madmannah, the same genealogical section that names Machbenah. As with other Calebite settlements, the naming of a person as "father" of a place indicates clan-based founding or governance of the settlement. Madmannah's dual appearance in both territorial and genealogical lists underscores the Calebite clan's important role in settling and administering Judah's southern frontier, a region that required particular resilience and vigilance given its exposure to raids from Amalekites and other desert peoples.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Madmannah has been identified with Khirbet Tatrit (also known as Khirbet Umm ed-Deimneh), located in the northern Negev approximately 25 kilometers northeast of Beersheba. The site occupies a position consistent with the southern Judahite towns listed in Joshua 15:31. Surface surveys have documented pottery from the Iron Age II period, corresponding to the Israelite monarchy, as well as later remains. The northern Negev experienced a significant settlement expansion during the Iron Age, with numerous small agricultural villages and fortified sites established under the Judean monarchy, possibly as part of a deliberate policy to secure the southern frontier. The region's marginal rainfall made water management critical, and evidence of cisterns and runoff agriculture has been found at sites throughout this zone.
Verse Appearances (4)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]