Tekoa
Tekoa (or Tekoah; - pitching of tents, fastening down) was a Biblical town of Judah, about 12 miles south of Jerusalem, and visible from the city. From this place Joab procured a "wise woman," who pretended to be in great affliction, and skillfully made her case known to David. Her address to the king was in the form of an apologue, similar to that of Nathan (2 Sam. 12:1-6). The object of Joab was, by the intervention of this woman, to induce David to bring back Absalom to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 14:2, 4, 9).
This was also the birth-place of the prophet Amos as seen in Amos 1:1.
Modern City
Tekoa is an Israeli settlement in the northern Judean hills in the West Bank. The settlement was founded in 1977 on the top of a hill among ruins of the site of biblical Tekoa, 5 miles south of Bethlehem, and close to Herodion ("Herod's mountain"). The town has developed a mixed population consisting of both religious and secular residents, as well as many new immigrants from the Commonwealth of Independent States (formerly the USSR). Tekoa is within the municipal jurisdiction of the Gush Etzion Regional Council.
The Tekoa Agro-Technology Farm that was established in 1986, and in 1989 was named Enterprise of the Year by the Israeli Journal of Agricultural Settlements.
Tekoa is home to a hesder settlement. Rabbi Menachem Froman is the town's rabbi.
References
This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
