MEROM (Hebrew Mērom). - A locality in northern Palestine. By the waters of M. (= mē-Mērōm, Josh. 11:5, 7) Joshua defeated the enemy coalition of the kings of northern Canaan.

In Byzantine times (Eusebius, Onomasticon, 128:4-6), M. was sought near Dothaim in the village of Marrus, probably Hirbet el-Mahrūneh. From the Middle Ages onward "the waters of M." were identified with Lake el-Hūleh and the battlefield with the small plain west of the lake ('ard el-Hūleh).

Since in biblical usage the designation "the waters..." with a proper name always applies to a spring (cf. Josh. 15:79; 16:1), the site of the battle is fixed at the locality of Mejrōn (Mrm in the list of Thutmose III, no. 12), abounding in water in the Wādi Mejrōn, 6 km southwest of Safed, at the foot of Mount Germali, on the road that leads from northern Galilee into the plain of Acre.

The addition in the Greek Septuagint version of ἐν τῇ ὀρεινῇ (= "in the mountain") makes more intelligible the success of Joshua's stratagem against the enemy supplied with chariots and horses.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: A. Fernández, Problemas de topografía palestinense, Barcelona 1936, pp. 113-19; F.-M. Abel, Les stratagèmes dans le livre de Josué, in Revue biblique, 56 (1949), pp. 335-38.

Donato Baldi

@incollection{ec8_merom_ebr_merom, author = {Baldi, Donato}, title = {Merom (Ebr. MĒRŌM)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {735}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/merom-ebr-merom} }

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