MASPHA (Heb. Mīspāh "Watchtower"). - Name of various localities in the Holy Land.
1. Given by Abraham to a heap of stones, north of the river Jabbok (= ez-Zerqā) at the time of the separation from Laban (Gen. 31:44-54).
2. Village in Gilead, Jordan (Judg. 10:17; 11:11), which is sometimes identified, although not necessarily, with M. of Gilead (ibid. 11:29) and with Ramoth-Mizpeh (Josh. 13:26). Jephthah had his residence there (Judg. 11:34), and there his daughter, unaware of the vow rashly made by her father, was notified by him of the death destined for her.
The localization of M. is uncertain. Some, drawn by the Itinerary of Egeria, who saw the tomb of Jephthah at Tisbeh, incline toward some locality not far from the Wādi Jābis, for example, Sūf; others place it farther south, for example, at Ḥirbet Ġel'ad.
3. Place situated at the foot of Hermon (Josh. 11:3), also called land of M. (ibid. 11:8). The identification is uncertain; Metullah and Qal'at es-Subejbeh have been proposed.
4. Village in the south of Judea (Josh. 15:38). The Onomasticon indicates two localities in the territory of Eleutheropolis (= Bejt Gibrin), and St. Jerome locates one on the Bejt Gibrin-Jerusalem road. As an identification, Ḥirbet es-Sāfijjeh, 3 km. to the northeast, and Ṣufijjeh, 10 km. from Bejt Gibrin, have been proposed.
5. City in the tribe of Benjamin, not far from Ramah (Josh. 18:25-26). It was the place of assembly of the Hebrews after the affair of Gibeah, where the wife of the Levite met an ignominious death (Judg. 20:1-2), and subsequently of other assemblies (1 Sam. 7:5-14; 10:17). It was fortified by Asa as a defense against the northern tribes (1 Kings 15:22; 2 Chron. 16:6). After the destruction of Jerusalem, Gedaliah established his residence there in the name of the Babylonians (2 Kings 25:23-25), and several Jews came to live there, among them Jeremiah (Jer. 40:6-16; 41:1-16), who met their death and whose bodies were thrown into the pool built by Asa. Repopulated by Jews after the exile, M. assisted in the restoration of Jerusalem (Neh. 3:7, 15, 19).
It was once proposed to identify M. with Nebi Samwīl, but today the identification with Tell en-Nasbeh prevails. The position of this tell, on the Jerusalem-Nazareth road, 13 km. from the former, on a hill, corresponds well to the literary notices concerning M., while the excavations carried out there have revealed an important city with a great encircling wall, inhabited from the Chalcolithic period to the Middle Bronze and from the Early Iron to the Hellenistic period. Among the seals found, one is notable with the inscription: "'Āhazjāh[ū] (son) of Mattanjāh[ū]" and another: "Ja-'azjāh[ū] servant (= official) of the king," that is, with Hebrew names even though they cannot be precisely identified with the biblical personages who bear these names. Other stamps have the word lē-melekh and others the letters jh, or jhd or msh.