Hebrew word · H4796
מָרוֹת
marot
Maroth
A place-name found only here. Some link it with Maarath in the Judean hill country (Josh 15:59), but most commentators call the site unidentified. Most towns in Micah 1:10–15 lie in the Shephelah, the low hills southwest of Jerusalem around Micah's home town of Moresheth.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
§ Maroth = "bitterness"
one of the towns in the lowland of Judah
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
- Range of meaning
A place-name found only here. Some link it with Maarath in the Judean hill country (Josh 15:59), but most commentators call the site unidentified. Most towns in Micah 1:10–15 lie in the Shephelah, the low hills southwest of Jerusalem around Micah's home town of Moresheth.
- Against the English
English versions transliterate it as 'Maroth', which makes sense but hides the pun. NLT is one of the few that brings out the 'bitterness' in its wording.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Its sound matches mar / marah, 'bitter' (compare Marah, 'bitter water', Exod 15:23, and Naomi's 'call me Mara', Ruth 1:20). The ancient translators heard the pun so strongly that they turned the name into a word. The Septuagint has odynas, 'pains'. The Vulgate has amaritudinibus, 'bitternesses'.
Where it appears
Micah · 1
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Micah 1:12 מָר֑וֹת Maroth
For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good, but calamity came down from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.
Here: A town in Judah whose location is unknown. Its name sounds like the Hebrew mar, 'bitter', plural 'bitternesses'. So the pun runs: Bitterness-town waits for good.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.