MORESHETH-GATH môr’ ə shĕth găth (Heb. מﯴרֶ֣שֶׁת גַּ֑ת, possession of Gath), a city mentioned in Micah 1:14. Moresheth is not an appellative, as the old trs. suppose, but the name of a city; the addition Gath is to define more precisely Moresheth’s situation as in the vicinity of Gath, or as belonging to Gath. According to Eusebius its situation was just E of Eleutheropolis. It is identified with the modern Tell ej-Judeideh, about five m. W of Gath, and about twenty m. SW of Jerusalem. The prophet Micah is denoted as “the Morasthite” (1:1), the gentilic adjective of a shortened form of the name, Moresheth. This home town of the prophet was prob. to be identified with Moresheth-Gath (cf. Jer 26:18).

The map of Medeba shows a vignette NE of Eleutheropolis with the note: “Morasthi, from which the prophet Micah came.”

Some scholars identify our place with Mareshah (cf. Micah 1:15; Josh 15:44), but unjustly so. Both places are in the vicinity of Eleutheropolis.

Bibliography J. Jeremias, “Moresheth-Gath, die Heimat des Propheten Micha,” PJB, 29 (1933), 42-53; K. Elliger, “Die Heimat des Propheten Micha,” ZDPV, 57 (1934), 119ff.