MARESHAH mə rē’ shə (מָרֵשָׁ֖ה, perhaps head place). 1. A Canaanite city in Judah’s lowland, the modern Tell Sandahannah, one m. SE of Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrin); strengthened by Rehoboam, in the early 9th cent. b.c. (2 Chron 11:8). Asa met a threateningly large Ethiopian army under Zerah nearby in the valley of Zephathah. Victorious by divine aid, he drove the enemy back to Gerar, thirty m. SW of Mareshah (2 Chron 14:9-15).

Eliezer of Mareshah foretold the failure of Jehoshaphat’s naval expedition bound for Tarshish, because of the unholy alliance with Ahaziah of Israel (2 Chron 20:35-37). Micah’s famous paranomasia (Mic 1:15) speaks of a promised heir (RSV, “conqueror”) to Mareshah.

During the Exile, the Edomites infiltrated S Judah, and Mareshah (thereafter commonly, Marisa) became a capital city. Beginning early in the 3rd cent. b.c., the place was successively occupied by the Seleucids (Syrians), the Ptolemies (Egyptians), and again by the Seleucids. About 250 b.c. a Sidonian colony under Apollophanes settled in Marisa, which archeological discoveries confirm.

Even under Egyp. rule, the Sidonians began to use Gr. names instead of Phoen. Excavations reveal a Grecian style city, with right angle streets and a number of houses in regular blocks. The place was the center of Idumean slave trade in the 3rd cent. b.c. In Maccabean times, it retained its importance. Gorgias, governor of Idumea, took refuge there in 164 b.c. (2 Macc 12:35). About the year 110 b.c., John Hyrcanus apparently subdued the city, circumcising such Idumeans as chose to remain (Jos. Antiq. XIII. ix. 1). In 63 b.c., Pompey recovered Marisa for the Idumeans; and c. 57 b.c., Gabinius, Rom. governor of Syria, rebuilt its fortifications. Caesar’s rule brought the city into Judah’s bounds, 47 b.c. He appointed Hyrcanus high priest, and Antipater, procurator (Jos. Antiq. XIV. v. 4; viii. 5. x. 3-6). Later, Antipater’s son, Herod, fled to Marisa escaping from Antigonus and allies (Jos. Antiq. XIV. xiii. 9). In 40 b.c. the place was destroyed and never rebuilt. Eleutheropolis, c. two Rom. m. away, became the important regional city.

2. The first-born son of Caleb, and as appears, the father of Ziph and Hebron (the text seems confused, 1 Chron 2:42). He is first called Mesha; later Mareshah.

3. A Judahite, son of Laadah (1 Chron 4:21).

Bibliography W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (1942), 146f.; J. Bright, History of Israel (1959) 123, 215, 401; M. Noth, History of Israel (1960); W. F. Albright, Archaeology of Palestine (1960), 152f.