meadow of the house of Maachah, a city in the north of Palestine, in the neighbourhood of Dan and Ijon, in the tribe of Naphtali. It was a place of considerable strength and importance. It is called a "mother in Israel", i.e., a metropolis ( 2 Samuel 20:19 ). It was besieged by Joab ( 2 Samuel 20:14 ), by Benhadad ( 1 Kings 15:20 ), and by Tiglath-pileser ( 2 Kings 15:29 ) about B.C. 734. It is elsewhere called Abel-maim, meadow of the waters, ( 2 Chronicles 16:4 ). Its site is occupied by the modern Abil or Abil-el-kamh, on a rising ground to the east of the brook Derdarah, which flows through the plain of Huleh into the Jordan, about 6 miles to the west-north-west of Dan.

These dictionary topics are from
M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition,
published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain, copy freely.