The New International Encyclopædia/Michmash

MICHMASH, mĭk′măsh. The site of the camp of the Philistines in the war at the beginning of Saul's reign, connected with the notable exploit of Jonathan (q.v.) related in I. Sam. xiv. It was a town of Benjamin, about seven miles north of Jerusalem. Its importance arose from its position on one of the two main roads from Jerusalem northward, at a point where the road descends into a steep and rugged valley. Josephus (Ant., vi. 6, 2) gives a detailed account of Jonathan's exploit, which tallies well with the features of the locality to-day. Men of Michmash returned with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii. 27; Neh. vii. 31). It is mentioned in the fictitious invasion of the Assyrians in Isaiah x. 28 sqq. In the time of the Maccabees it became the headquarters of Jonathan (I. Macc. ix. 73), and was a large village in the time of Eusebius. It is the modern Muhmas.