MEDEBA

(Medʹe·ba) [possibly, water of quiet].

This place is represented by modern Madeba, a town located on a low, gently sloping hill about twelve miles (19 kilometers) E of the northern end of the Dead Sea. The ancient “King’s Road” linked it with other cities E of the Jordan. (Compare Numbers 20:17.) Situated on a treeless but fertile plain or plateau averaging about 2,300 feet (700 meters) in elevation, Medeba itself lies at an altitude of 2,540 feet (774 meters) above sea level. In the plain, the “tableland of Medeba,” flocks of sheep and goats find pasturage.—Josh. 13:9, 16.

After the Israelites defeated Amorite King Sihon, Medeba came to be in the territory given to the tribe of Reuben. (Josh. 13:8, 9, 15, 16) It appears that earlier the Amorites had taken Medeba from the Moabites. (Num. 21:25-30) Several centuries later, in a fight against the Ammonites, the army of King David under Joab’s command defeated Aramaean (Syrian) mercenary forces encamped before Medeba.—1 Chron. 19:6-16.

According to the Moabite Stone (line 8), Israel’s King Omri (c. 951-940 B.C.E.) took possession of the “land of Medeba,” it remaining in Israelite hands for forty years. Line 30 of the same monument, though partially defaced, appears to indicate that Moab’s King Mesha succeeded in gaining control of Medeba and rebuilt it and other cities in the area. It may be, however, that the Israelites regained dominion over Medeba when Jeroboam II (c. 844-803 B.C.E.) “restored the boundary of Israel from the entering in of Hamath clear to the sea of the Arabah.” (2 Ki. 14:25) But this would not have been for long, since Isaiah’s pronouncement (c. 778-732) against Moab shows that Medeba was by then under Moabite control, and they were foretold to ‘howl’ over the loss of the city.—Isa. 15:1, 2.

MEDES, MEDIA

The Medes were an Aryan race, hence of Japhetic stock and evidently descended from Japheth’s son Madai. (Gen. 10:2) They were closely related to the Persians in race, language and religion.

As a people, the Medes do not begin to appear in Biblical history until the eighth century B.C.E., while the first mention of them in available secular records dates from the time of Assyrian King Shalmaneser III, a contemporary of King Jehu (905-876 B.C.E.). Sometime between the dispersion of peoples resulting from the confusion of languages at Babel (Gen. 11:8, 9) and the reign of Shalmaneser III, the Medes had entered into the Iranian plateau region. Archaeological and other evidence is viewed as indicating their presence there from about the middle of the second millennium B.C.E. onward.

GEOGRAPHY

Though its boundaries undoubtedly fluctuated, the ancient region of Media basically lay W and S of the Caspian Sea, being separated from the coastland of that sea by the Elburz mountain range. In the NW it evidently reached beyond Lake Urmia to the Araxes River valley, while on its western boundary the Zagros Mountains served as a barrier between Media and the land of Assyria and the lowlands of the Tigris; to the E lay a large desert region, and on the S the country of Elam.

The land of the Medes was thus mainly a mountainous plateau averaging from 3,000 to 5,000 feet (914.4 to 1,524 meters) above sea level. A considerable portion of the land is arid steppe, rainfall being generally scanty, though there are several fertile plains that are highly productive. Most of the rivers flow toward the great central desert, where their waters are dissipated into marshes and swamp, these drying up in the hot summer and leaving salt deposits. Natural barriers made it relatively easy to defend; the western mountain range is the highest, with numerous peaks over 14,000 feet (4,267.2 meters) high, but the tallest single peak, Mount Demavend, is found in the Elburz range near the Caspian Sea. Rising to a height of 18,934 feet (5,771 meters), it is evidently the “Mount Bikni” referred to so frequently in the Assyrian cuneiform texts dealing with the Medes.

PRINCIPAL OCCUPATIONS

Evidently then, as now, most of the people lived in small villages or were nomadic, stock raising being a principal occupation. Cuneiform texts recounting Assyrian incursions into Media present such a picture and show that the excellent breed of horses raised by the Medes was one of the main prizes sought by the invaders. Herds of sheep, goats, asses, mules and cows were also pastured on the good grazing grounds of the high valleys. On Assyrian reliefs Medes are sometimes represented as wearing what appear to be sheepskin coats over their tunics and having high-laced boots, necessary equipment for pastoral work on the plateaus where the winters brought snow and bitter cold. Archaeological evidence shows the Medes to have had capable metalsmiths working in bronze and gold.

HISTORY

The Medes left virtually no written records; what is known of them is derived from the Bible record, from Assyrian texts, and also from the classical Greek historians. The Medes appear to have been formed into numerous petty kingdoms under tribal chieftains, and the boastful accounts of Assyrian Emperors Shamshi-adad V, Tiglath-pileser III, and Sargon II