Maachah

The name Maachah — UPDV consistently spells it Maacah — gathers a string of distinct figures across the Pentateuch, the Former Prophets, and the chronicler's genealogies, plus an Aramean kingdom east of Bashan whose people are called Maacathites. The persons range from a son born to Nahor's concubine, through a Geshurite princess in David's harem and a queen mother whose Asherah is destroyed by her grandson, down to obscure fathers and wives in the Davidic muster lists. The same consonantal name surfaces under variant spellings — Maoch in 1Sa 27, Micaiah in 2Ch 13, and Arammaacah in 1Ch 19 — and these are grouped under the one umbrella because the underlying Hebrew is the same.

A Son of Nahor

The name first appears at the end of Abraham's genealogy of his brother Nahor, in a closing notice of Nahor's concubine Reumah and her four sons: "And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she also bore Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah" (Genesis 22:24). Nothing further is said of this Maacah; he stands at the head of the lexical entry only because his name happens to coincide with the later figures.

Mother of Absalom

The most prominent Maacah in the Davidic narrative is the mother of Absalom, a foreign princess whom David married for political reasons during the Hebron years. The list of David's sons born at Hebron names her by patronym: "and his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur" (2 Samuel 3:3). The chronicler repeats the same identification: "the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith" (1 Chronicles 3:2). She is the link between David's house and the Geshurite royal line that later shelters Absalom in his exile after the killing of Amnon.

Father of Achish, King of Gath

A Philistine Maacah is the father of Achish, the Gittite king who shelters David during Saul's pursuit. The earlier narrative spells the patronym Maoch: "And David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath" (1 Samuel 27:2). When the same king resurfaces a generation later under Solomon — in the affair of Shimei's runaway slaves — the spelling has been normalized: "And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two of the slaves of Shimei ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, Look, your slaves are in Gath" (1 Kings 2:39). The two notices preserve the same person under a hardened and a softened form of the name.

Mother of Abijah and Grandmother of Asa

A second royal Maacah — a generation removed from David's wife — is the queen mother of Abijah and grandmother of Asa, and she is the most theologically loaded of the bearers of the name. Kings introduces her as Abijah's mother: "He reigned three years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom" (1 Kings 15:2). The same patronym is then reused for Asa, whose actual mother is by descent his grandmother: "And forty and one years he reigned in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom" (1 Kings 15:10). Asa's reform reaches her: "And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, as did David his father. And he put away the pagan whores out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. And also Maacah his mother he removed from being queen, because she had made a horrible image for an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrible image, and burned it at the brook Kidron" (1 Kings 15:11-13). The chronicler tells the same story with a fuller marital backdrop: "And after her he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom; and she bore him Abijah, and Attai, and Ziza, and Shelomith. And Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines: (for he took eighteen wives, and threescore concubines, and begot twenty and eight sons and threescore daughters.) And Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah to be chief, [even] the leader among his brothers; for [he was minded] to make him king" (2 Chronicles 11:20-22). The chronicler's reform notice mirrors Kings: "And also Maacah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed from being queen, because she had made a horrible image for an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrible image, and made dust of it, and burned it at the brook Kidron" (2 Chronicles 15:16). One verse in the chronicler — at the head of Abijah's reign — gives a different name and patronym: "He reigned three years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam" (2 Chronicles 13:2). Maacah-Maachah-Micaiah are grouped under one head because the dynastic figure is the same queen mother across the parallels.

Wife of Machir, Mother of Peresh

In the chronicler's genealogies of the half-tribe of Manasseh, a Maacah is wife and sister within Machir's family: "And Machir took a wife of Huppim and Shuppim, whose sister's name was Maacah; and the name of the second was Zelophehad: and Zelophehad had daughters. And Maacah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she named him Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh; and his sons were Ulam and Rakem" (1 Chronicles 7:15-16).

Concubine of Caleb

A briefer notice in the Calebite genealogy records a Maacah among Caleb's secondary wives: "Maacah, Caleb's concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah" (1 Chronicles 2:48).

Wife of Jeiel of Gibeon

In the genealogies of Saul's Benjaminite line, a Maacah is the wife of Jeiel, the head of Gibeon: "And in Gibeon there dwelt the father of Gibeon, [Jeiel], whose wife's name was Maacah" (1 Chronicles 8:29). The notice is repeated almost verbatim in the parallel list a chapter later: "And in Gibeon there dwelt the father of Gibeon, Jeiel, whose wife's name was Maacah" (1 Chronicles 9:35).

Father of Hanan the Mighty Man

In the roster of David's mighty men in 1 Chronicles 11, a Maacah is named only as the father of Hanan: "Hanan the son of Maacah, and Joshaphat the Mithnite" (1 Chronicles 11:43). The roster gives no further detail.

Father of Shephatiah of Simeon

In David's tribal officers' list, a Maacah is the father of Shephatiah, the leader of the Simeonites: "Furthermore over the tribes of Israel: of the Reubenites was Eliezer the son of Zichri the leader: of the Simeonites, Shephatiah the son of Maacah" (1 Chronicles 27:16).

The Aramean Kingdom of Maacah

The same name labels a small Aramean kingdom east of Bashan, with its inhabitants called the Maacathites. The conquest tradition fixes its border alongside Geshur: "Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth-jair, to this day" (Deuteronomy 3:14). The same border line is repeated in the summary of Og's defeated territory: "and ruled in mount Hermon, and in Salecah, and in all Bashan, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and [as far as] half of Gilead which is the territory of Sihon king of Heshbon" (Joshua 12:5). Under David the kingdom hires itself out to Ammon against Israel. Samuel records the coalition: "And when the sons of Ammon saw that they had become a stench to David, the sons of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with a thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men" (2 Samuel 10:6). When the battle is joined, the Maacah contingent is named with the other Aramean and Transjordanian forces: "And the sons of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate: and the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field" (2 Samuel 10:8). The chronicler retells the muster with a compound place name: "And when the sons of Ammon saw that they had made themselves a stench to David, Hanun and the sons of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire themselves chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out of Arammaacah, and out of Zobah. So they hired themselves thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of Maacah and his people, who came and encamped before Medeba. And the sons of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle" (1 Chronicles 19:6-7).

A Note on the Name

UPDV consistently spells the personal and place name Maacah; the older spelling Maachah preserved here as the umbrella title is the same Hebrew name. The variants Maoch (1 Samuel 27:2), Micaiah (2 Chronicles 13:2), and the compound Arammaacah (1 Chronicles 19:6) are local orthographic and onomastic variations on the same root. The Aramean polity east of Bashan and the persons named Maacah share a name without sharing a referent; they are collected under one head only as a lexical convenience.