Michmas

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Michmas (/ˈmɪkmæʃ/; Hebrew: מִכְמָשׂ or מִכְמָס, romanized: Mīḵmās, lit. 'laid up (concealed) place') was an Israelite and Jewish town located in the highlands north of Jerusalem. According to the Hebrew Bible, it belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin.^[1] It was the setting of the biblical Battle of Michmash, recounted in 1 Samuel 14. Michmas was inhabited during the Second Temple period, when, according to the Mishnah, its fine wheat was brought to the Temple.^[2]

Michmas is identified with the Palestinian village of Mukhmas in the West Bank, which preserves its ancient name.^[3][4] The nearby Israeli settlement Ma'ale Mikhmas, founded in 1981, is also named after the biblical town.

Location

Michmas was located near

The town is known by its connection with the

It tells how Jonathan and his armor-bearer showed themselves ‘to the Philistines’ garrison’ on the other side, and how they passed two sharp rocks: ‘there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez and the name of the other Seneh.’[7] They clambered up the cliff and overpowered the garrison ‘within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plough.’ The main body of the enemy awakened by the mêlée thought they were surrounded by Saul’s troops and ‘melted away and they went on beating down one another.’^[8]

A divinely sent earthquake, the effects of which were noted by Saul’s watchmen, threw the Philistine camp into turmoil. By the time Saul and his men came on the scene, many of the Philistines had slaughtered one another in confusion and the rest had taken to flight.

From Sennacherib to Maccabaeans

Second Temple period

Modern scholars have suggested that Michmas was a priestly settlement during the Second Temple period. It was inhabited up until Bar-Kokhba revolt, during the early 2nd century CE.^[9] The Mishnah teaches that the finest of the wheat used in the offering of the Omer was taken from Michmas and from Zanoah (Menachot 8:1).^[2]

During the 1980s, 4 clusters of tombs, consisting of roughly 70 burial caves, were found in the vicinity of modern-day Mukhmas. In one of the burial caves, an ancient graffiti of a seven-branched menorah was found, together with a Paleo-Hebrew inscription. In the 1990s, German researchers purchased a ossuary found in Mukhmas bearing the name ‘Shimeon L[evi]’, written in the Hebrew alphabet.^[9]

World War I

During