Metheg Ammah

In Bible versions:

Metheg Ammah: NET
Metheg-Ammah: AVS TEV
Metheg: NIV
Metheg-ammah: NRSV
control of the chief: NASB

a town of the Philistines

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bridle of bondage

Google Maps: Metheg-ammah (31° 41´, 34° 50´)

Hebrew

Strongs #04965: hmah gtm Metheg ha-'Ammah

1) mother city
1a) bridle of the mother city (ie control or authority of)

4965 Metheg ha-'Ammah meh'-theg haw-am-maw'

from 4964 and 520 with the art. interposed; bit of the
metropolis; Metheg-ha-Ammah, an epithet of
Gath:-Metheg-ammah.
see HEBREW for 04964
see HEBREW for 0520

Metheg-ammah [EBD]

bridle of the mother, a figurative name for a chief city, as in 2 Sam. 8:1, "David took Metheg-ammah out of the hand of the Philistines" (R.V., "took the bridle of the mother-city"); i.e., subdued their capital or strongest city, viz., Gath (1 Chr. 18:1).

Metheg-ammah [NAVE]

METHEG-AMMAH, a place in Philistia, 2 Sam. 8:1.

METHEG-AMMAH [ISBE]

METHEG-AMMAH - me-theg-am'-a, meth-eg-am'-a (mathegh ha-'ammah, "bridle of the metropolis"; Septuagint ten aphorismenen): It is probable that the place-name Metheg-Ammah in 2 Sam 8:1 the King James Version should be rendered as in the Revised Version (British and American), "the bridle of the mother city," i.e. Gath, since we find in the parallel passage in 1 Ch 18:1 gath ubhenotheha, "Gath and her daughters," i.e. daughter towns. The Septuagint has an entirely different reading: "and David took the tribute out of the hand of the Philistines," showing that they had a different text from what we now have in the Hebrew. The text is evidently corrupt. If a place is intended its site is unknown, but it must have been in the Philistine plain and in the vicinity of Gath.

H. Porter