Eshtemoa
Eshtemoa is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as As Samu. It appears across 4 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Eshtemoa is a Levitical city in the hill country of Judah, assigned to the Kohathite Levites in Joshua 21:14 and listed among Judah's hill country towns in Joshua 15:50. Its most vivid appearance comes in 1 Samuel 30:28, where David, after his victory over the Amalekites who had raided Ziklag, sent portions of the recovered plunder to Eshtemoa among the towns of Judah that had supported him. This detail reveals that Eshtemoa was part of David's support network in the Judean south, a community whose loyalty the future king cultivated. The town reappears in 1 Chronicles 6:57 as a priestly city, confirming its Levitical character and religious significance within Judah's administrative system. As a town in the southern Hebron hills, Eshtemoa occupied an agriculturally rich highland plateau, and its priestly designation would have given it a distinctive identity as a center of religious instruction and worship in an era before the Jerusalem temple was established.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Eshtemoa is securely identified with As-Samu (also spelled es-Semu'a), a village in the southern West Bank approximately 15 kilometers south of Hebron. The site has been the subject of excavation revealing substantial Iron Age remains, including a large public building interpreted as a synagogue from the Roman-Byzantine period — one of the earliest known in Palestine. Beneath the Byzantine levels, Iron Age II pottery and architecture confirm occupation during the period of the Israelite monarchy. The site's location on the fertile southern Hebron plateau, with reliable rainfall and good agricultural land, supports its biblical role as a settled Levitical community. Survey work confirms continuous occupation from the Bronze Age onward.
Verse Appearances (4)
Sources: ISBE Encyclopedia · OpenBible Geocoding (CC BY) · Pleiades Gazetteer View all →