Anathoth - the name of one of the cities of refuge, in the tribe of
Benjamin (Josh. 21:18). The Jews, as a rule, did not change the
names of the towns they found in Palestine; hence this town may
be regarded as deriving its name from the goddess Anat. It was
the native place of Abiezer, one of David's "thirty" (2 Sam.
23:27), and of Jehu, another of his mighty men (1 Chr. 12:3). It
is chiefly notable, however, as the birth-place and usual
residence of
Jeremiah (Jer. 1:1; 11:21-23; 29:27; 32:7-9). It
suffered greatly from the army of Sennacherib, and only 128 men
returned to it from the
Exile (Neh. 7:27;
Ezra 2:23). It lay
about 3 miles north of Jerusalem. It has been identified with
the small and poor village of 'Anata, containing about 100
inhabitants.
From Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
All Wikipedia text
is available under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License