Tekoa

AI summary: Tekoa combines political, military, and prophetic significance in a relatively small place. In Samuel it provides the wise woman whose parable helps move the story of Absalom and David, showing Tekoa's connection with royal strategy and courtcraft. Chronicles places it among Judah's fortified towns, while Jeremiah uses it as a warning point in time of danger. Most memorably, Amos identifies himself as from Tekoa, giving the town a lasting connection with prophetic witness to justice and judgment. The cross references present Tekoa as a southern hill-town where wisdom, warning, and prophecy meet.¹

Pitching of tents; fastening down, a town of Judah, about 12 miles south of Jerusalem, and visible from the city. From this place Joab procured a “wise woman,” who pretended to be in great affliction, and skilfully made her case known to David. Her address to the king was in the form of an apologue, similar to that of Nathan (2 Sam. 12:1-6). The object of Joab was, by the intervention of this woman, to induce David to bring back Absalom to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 14:2, 4, 9). This was also the birth-place of the prophet Amos (1:1). It is now the village of Teku’a, on the top of a hill among ruins, 5 miles south of Bethlehem, and close to Beth-haccerem (“Herod’s mountain”). ³