MADMEN

(Madʹmen) [possibly, dunghill].

Seemingly a place in Moab foretold to suffer calamity by sword. At Jeremiah 48:2, “You, too, O Madmen, should keep silent,” translates the Hebrew phrase gam-madh·menʹ tid·domʹmi. Many scholars believe that the initial m in madh·menʹ (“Madmen”) was inadvertently repeated from the previous word (gam). Without the initial m the consonants of Madmen correspond to those of Dimon and, therefore, Madmen is often considered to be the same as Dimon (possibly, Khirbet Dimneh, two and a half miles [4 kilometers] NW of Rabbah). However, perhaps Madmen does not designate an actual location, since the renderings of the Greek Septuagint, Syriac and Latin Vulgate versions suggest that the ancient Hebrew text read, ‘Yes, you [Moab] shall be utterly brought to silence.’