Tel-Melah

Tel-melah is one of the Babylonian places of origin listed in the post-exilic registers of returnees who could not document their Israelite ancestry. The name appears only in two parallel lists, in Ezra and in Nehemiah.

A Place of Return Without Pedigree

In Ezra's register Tel-melah heads a small group of returnees alongside Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer: "And these were those who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, [and] Immer; but they could not show their fathers' houses, and their seed, whether they were of Israel" (Ezr 2:59).

Nehemiah's parallel list preserves the same body of returnees with one spelling variation in the names: "And these were those who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but they could not show their fathers' houses, nor their seed, whether they were of Israel" (Ne 7:61). Tel-melah thus stands among Babylonian settlements whose returnees lacked the genealogical documentation required to be enrolled with Israel.