Hebrew word · H4089
מַדְמַנָּה
madmanah
Madmannah
A proper noun naming a town. It looks related to madmenah, 'dung-heap' or 'manure pit' (Isaiah 25:10), and to domen, 'dung'. The name might describe fertilised fields or a refuse mound.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
Madmannah = "dunghill"
one of the towns in the south district of Judah
Also named: bet ham.mar.ka.vot (בֵּית מַרְכָּבוֹת "Beth-marcaboth" H1024)
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Joshua 15:31
- Range of meaning
A proper noun naming a town. It looks related to madmenah, 'dung-heap' or 'manure pit' (Isaiah 25:10), and to domen, 'dung'. The name might describe fertilised fields or a refuse mound. Place names often keep old descriptions that no one noticed any longer, so the meaning would not have struck a hearer as insulting.
- Against the English
The English versions transliterate it. No version brings out the possible meaning, and that is right, because it is uncertain.
- Used elsewhere in the period
1 Chronicles 2:49 says Shaaph was the 'father of Madmannah', a common way in the genealogies of saying who founded or led a settlement. This ties the town to the Calebite clans of the south. Do not confuse it with Madmen in Moab (Jeremiah 48:2) or Madmenah north of Jerusalem (Isaiah 10:31). Suggested sites include Khirbet Umm ed-Deimneh and Khirbet Tatrit, but none is confirmed.
Where it appears
Joshua · 1
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Joshua 15:31 וּמַדְמַנָּ֖ה and Madmannah
Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah,
Here: Another Negev town. 1 Chronicles 2:49 links it with Caleb's clan. The name may come from a root to do with a dung-heap or manured ground, but that is not certain.
1 Chronicles · 1
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1 Chronicles 2:49 מַדְמַנָּ֔ה Madmannah
She was also the mother of Shaaph father of Madmannah, and of Sheva father of Machbenah and Gibea. Caleb’s daughter was Acsah.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.