Baal-meon
Baal-meon is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Transjordan in modern-day Israel. Known today as Ma‘in. It appears across 4 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Baal-meon was an ancient Transjordanian city whose history bridges the Israelite conquest, the tribal settlement, and the prophetic literature of the exile period. Originally a Canaanite or Amorite settlement, it was captured by Israel during the wilderness period and allocated to the tribe of Reuben (Num. 32:38), which rebuilt and renamed it, Numbers recording it was called Beth-baal-meon. The city also appears in Joshua 13:17 in the list of Reubenite towns. Over subsequent centuries, Reubenite settlement in Transjordan weakened, and the Moabites gradually reoccupied much of the territory east of the Dead Sea. By the time of the prophets, Baal-meon had reverted to Moabite control and is condemned along with other Moabite cities in the oracles of Jeremiah (48:23) and Ezekiel (25:9). The very name of the city: "lord of habitation" or "lord of the dwelling", reflects the Canaanite religious geography of the Transjordanian plateau, where Baalistic sanctuaries dotted the landscape. The Mesha Stele, the Moabite king's ninth-century BC victory inscription, also refers to Beth-baal-meon by name, confirming its ongoing importance to Moabite political and religious identity.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Baal-meon is securely identified with the site of Main (Ma'in) or, more precisely, Khirbet Ma'in, situated on the Moabite plateau east of the Dead Sea in modern Jordan. The site is referenced in the famous Mesha Stele (c. 840 BC), which provides independent confirmation of the biblical identification. Archaeological investigations in the region have documented occupation from the Bronze Age through the Roman period. The Moabite plateau has been the subject of extensive survey work by the Madaba Plains Project and others, which have documented Iron Age ceramics and structural remains consistent with the biblical accounts of Reubenite and later Moabite occupation.
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]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]