Ma'achah

מעכה


Genesis 22:24 names him as a son of Nachor (נחור), Av-Ram's brother, by his concubine Re'umah (ראומה).

But this is surely an error for "his daughter"; the Hey - ה - ending being almost invariably feminine. Having Re'umah for a mother helps us identify who Ma'achah really was, and may even lead to a better understanding of who Av-Ram was before he became mis-identified with Av-Raham.

Arabian oryx

Re'umah is generally treated as coming from the root Ra'am (ראם) which means "to exalt", but that is Aramaic, not Yehudit; the middle-letter Aleph (א) added to the word Ram (רם) that we are familiar with from Av-Ram himself (אברם). The correct root is Re'em (ראם), which appears in Numbers 23:22, Deuteronomy 33:17, Psalm 22:22, 29:6 and 92:11 as an ox-like animal, probably the oryx (the Arabic word Re'em, spelled the same, is known to mean the oryx), a species of antelope, which the ancients thought was itself a type of wild bull, hence the Greek name "buffalo"" which means precisely that - though many of the more fanciful translations like to identify the creature as the unicorn.

The letter Aleph (א), taken as a word (אלף), is also, by strange coincidence or deliberate pun, another word for the selfsame animal, the antelope-ox. The oryx, like its bull counterpart, was used in astrology, and in hieroglyphics, as a symbol of the sun: Taurus the Bull who, until roughly the time of Av-Raham, was also the month of the vernal equinox, and as such the start of the year. Thus we can read Ma'achah as the progeny of the sun-god; though not which planetary body was intended. Can we also read Av-Ram as Av-Re'em?

Joshua 13:11 names Ha Ma'achati (הַמַּעֲכָתִ֗י - Maacathites) as coming from a town or region near Mount Chermon which Yehoshu'a failed to defeat; it lies, we are told, close to that Geshur whose king Talmai would later give his daughter Ma'achah as a wife to King David (2 Samuel 3:3) - and Aramaic Talmai, which becomes Shalom or Shelomoh (Solomon) in Yehudit, was probably the reason why their child was named Av-Shalom (Absalom - אַבְשָׁלֽוֹם - "my father was Talmai"). Talmai (תלמי), which is also the Aramaic-Yehudit version of Greco-Egyptian Ptolemy, means "furrows", and the oryx, bull and antelope were precisely the animals which were yoked to the plough to form the furrows. Thus the sun-god link is furthered.

As noted above, Talm in Aramaic becomes Salm in Yehudit, where the letters Tav (ת) and Sheen (ש) are reversed; the link to the Davidic names of Shelomoh (Solomon) and Av-Shalom (Absalom) can thus be made, and the marriage to Ma'achah becomes central in the establishment of David's YHVH moon-cult of Chevron in its new political capital of Yeru-Shala'im (Jerusalem = Ir + Shalem, from the same SALM root - ירושלם originally, later ירושלים), the central city of Salm/Talm worship, whose king bore the epithet Malki-Tsedek (מלכי-צדק), which means "Moloch is Just", and the title Shelomoh which we now interpret in its most limited sense to mean "peace", though really it means something much larger: "wholeness" or "perfection". 

The original, pre-Davidic Yeru-Shala'im kingship was in fact a sun-kingship, Moloch (מלך) being a sun-god. For Shalem (whence Shalom/שלום= peace), which is at the root of Iru Shalem (עירו שלם), the City of Salem, means "cosmos" or "universal harmony". The kingdom of the sun-god on Earth, like all ancient temples, was intended to symbolise its celestial equivalent. Hence the importance of the city which was deemed to be the navel of the cosmos by dint of its being the sun-god's home.

The region of Geshur at the foot of Mount Chermon was also known (1 Chronicles 19:6) as Aram Ma'acah (ארם מעכה), and we can presume that this is where the cult was originally based. There are elsewhere references to a temple - Beit Ma'acah (בית מעכה) - and a cemetery - Avel Beit Ma'acah (עבל בית מעכה) - both in a town of Menasheh to the east of the river Yarden (Jordan), at the foot of Mount Levanon. "Avel" is used to mean a pasture or meadow, but we know from Avel-Mitsrayim and other references that "meadow" does not only mean the pastureland where farmers grazed their cattle, but also a place of mourning, in other words a burial-ground, (from Evel/עבל = "mourning"). See the note to Shaveh (שוה) below.

In 2 Samuel 10:6, the king of Ma'achah fought with the Beney Amon (Ammonites) against David (cf 1 Chronicles 19:7); an odd reference given the relationship established in 2 Samuel 3:3. Amon (or Amun) was the Egyptian Zeus, again the sun-god.

Deuteronomy 3:14 apportions the land of Ma'achah to Ya'ir ben Menasheh, naming the Beney Geshur and Beney Ma'achah separately (cf Joshua 12:5). Yair (יעיר) = "to give light"; Menasheh (מנשה) was a grandson of the sun-priest of On (Heliopolis), via Yoseph.

2 Kings 25:23 names Yah-Azan-Yahu (יעזניהו), a son of a member of the Beney Ma'achah, as one of those gathered around Gedal-Yahu (Gedaliah - גְּדַלְיָ֖הוּ), the Babylonian appointed governor of the remnant at the time of the first exile (586 BCE). Yah-Azan-Yahu is tautological, the name of the moon-goddess being repeated as prefix and suffix. Azan-Yahu comes from the root Azan (עזן) = "to hear", and as we have witnessed before (cf Ashterot-Karnayim inter alia), the ears, like the horns, stand for the waxing and waning crescents of the moon.

1 Kings 2:39 names Ach-Ish ben Ma'achah as a king of Gat, which is the key reference really, since it locates a Ma'achah outside the region of Geshur and Chermon for the first time, and also appends it to a royal name, which is only ever done with the names of gods and goddesses. In fact, placing it in Gat merely emphasises its Phoenician origin, as both Gat - through the Dana'ans - and Chermon - through the indigenous Phoenicians - were of that people. Moloch too was a Phoenician deity, the chief deity indeed of Tsur (Tyre), known by them as Melkart. The meaning of Ach-Ish (אכיש) is unclear (in Yehudit Ach means "brother" and Ish "man", but the name is not Yehudit), but in general the Philistine kings of Gat were worshipers of Dagon, the corn-god aspect of the sun-god (cf the story of Shimshon and Delilah in Judges 16). 1 Samuel 27:3 (27:2 in some translations) names him as Ma'och (מעוך) rather than Ma'acah, though the root is the same. Ach-Ish plays a vital role in David’s rise to the kingship, for it is he who employs David as a mercenary, appoints him king of Tsiklag, and enables him to fight against Sha'ul.

1 Chronicles 11:43 names Chanan (חנן) ben Ma'achah as one of David's thirty "mighty men" - his bodyguard - which now firmly establishes Ma'achah as a planetary deity. Chanan means "grace" - the name Chanah, which in English may be Hannah or Anne, or Joanne when the goddess' name is prefixed, comes from the same root - which is usually a lunar epithet, and in fact if we read Ma'achah as a synonym for the moon-goddess herself, as is logical, then his name becomes a Phoenician original of the Greek "grace of the moon", which is "Hera-kles", or in Latin Hercules. The Phoenicians in fact knew Herakles by his full name, which was Herakles Melkart.

1 Chronicles 27:16 completes the astrological picture. This chapter describes how

"the Beney Yisra-El appointed the chiefs of the fathers and captains of thousands and hundreds, and their officers that served the king in any matter of the courses, which came in and went out month by month throughout all the month of the year, of every course were twenty and four thousand" (1 Chronicles 27:1).

The regulation of the lunar calendar through this structure called Decans was Babylonian (Chaldean) in origin, but Chronicles insists that it was introduced into Yisra-El at the time of King David. Verses one to fifteen name the officers appointed for each of the twelve months; after which additional officers are appointed, with Shephat-Yahu (שפטיהו) ben Ma'achah serving for the tribe of Shim'on. 

2 Chronicles 21:2 names another Shephat-Yahu (שְׁפַטְיָ֥ה) as the son of Yehoshaphat (יהושפט), though in fact this is the same name with the goddess' name suffixed instead of prefixed (Yahu-Shophet - "the goddess is my judge"). An equivalent would be the Greek names Dorothea and Theodora, which we today amusingly reduce to Dotty and Teddy.

1 Chronicles 12:5 has a third Shephat-Yahu, this time ben Chariphi (חריפי); the Chariphim (חריפים) are the autumn showers that indicate the arrival of the important chamsin (sirocco) winds, and the end of the summer drought.

Shephat means "judge" in the ancient sense of shaman: poet, oracle-giver, rain-maker and sacrificial priest, and becomes the Shophtim (שׁוֹפְטִים) who gave their name to the Book of Judges. We can thus read the role of Shephat-Yahu quite precisely from this link to the rain-making; and the key phrase of the Amidah (the central prayer of every synagogue service to this day) which is still added daily from Shemini Atseret (the festival that celebrates the arrival of the autumn rains) to Pesach (the festival that brings in the spring) - Mashiv ha ru'ach u-morid ha geshem - משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם- "let the winds blow and the rain fall" - would have belonged to his liturgy.

1 Kings 15:1 ff names Ma'acah as the grand-daughter of Avi-Shalom (אבי-שלום), a variant of Av-Shalom (אַבְשָׁלֽוֹם - Absalom); she was the mother of King Avi-Yam (אבים) of Yehudah, and grandmother of King Asa (אסא) of Judah, a name that probably means "healer" though its etymology is very unclear.

So the amalgamation of sun and moon cults can take place, Avi-Shalom (my-father-the-sun-god) being linked by family and through marriage to Avi-Yam, a Davidic variant for Avi-Yah ("my-mother-the-moon-goddess" turned into "my-mother-the-sea-goddess", probably because the Phoenicians were sea-going people and David, despite his Beney Mo-Av great-grandmother, was by religion a Phoenician; and, as we know from Aphrodite and others, the sea was simply one aspect of her divinity, for its tides were in her control). However…

2 Chronicles 11:20: Rechav-Am (Rehoboam - רחבעם) married Ma'achah, the daughter of Av-Shalom (Absalom), who bore him Avi-Yah (אֲבִיָּה֙), Atai (עַתַּ֔י) - which may be an error for Itai - Ziza (זִיזָ֖א) and Shelomit (שְׁלֹמִֽית); the latter yet another variation of that same SALM root. A marriage like his grand-father David's, in which the moon-king marries the daughter (priestess) of the sun in order to secure his right to rule. A different Ma'achah, but the name was titular, not personal. Avi-Yah confirms what was said earlier about Avi-Yam. Atai (עתי) means a "time" or "season", connected to the word OT (אות) in Genesis 1:14 and elsewhere. Ziza (זיזה) means "abundance", but this is probably an error for Ziva (זיוה) which means "brightness"; all these words are again sun-linked. Ziva is a significant character in the Davidic legends (2 Samuel 16), being the guardian of Sha'ul's lame son Mephi-Boshet.

1 Chronicles 2:48 names yet another Ma'acah, this one a concubine of Kalev (Caleb - כלב) who bore him Shever (שבר) and Tirchanah (תרחנה), also Sha'aph (שעף), the founder of Madmanah (מדמנה), Sheva (שוא), the founder of Machbenah (מכבנה), and Giv'ah (גבעה), usually rendered in English as Gibeah. Kalev's daughter by her was Achsa (עכסה) which means "to adorn oneself with ankle bracelets". Concubine here is interesting. The Beney Kalev were priests who served the moon-goddess and conducted sodomitic rites on her behalf (Kalev is the Yehudit word for "dog"); Kalev, then, was more likely her concubine than she his.

Shever (שבר) is the corn, broken down into grains, which of course happens at the threshing-floor and is very much a seasonal sun-ritual.

Tirchanah (תרחנה) has thus far defied the "Hebrew" scholars, but the root suggests a non-Yehudit origin, so this is not surprising. If there is a Yehudit connection, it may lie in the name Chanah, for which see the notes earlier on this page.

Sha'aph (שעף) means "division" and is used for the separation of the chaff at harvesting.

Madmanah (מדמנה) means a "dunghill", and two towns bore the name, one in Bin-Yamin (Isaiah 10:31), the other in Yehudah (Joshua 15:31); this is not so curious as it seems, for the dung beetle was known as Yah Zevel (יזבל), a variant on the scarab, scorpion and crab, all of them symbols of the moon-goddess and of the zodiacal sign of Scorpio. Yah Zevel appears most famously in the Tanach in a deliberately modified form as I-Zevel (אִיזֶבֶל - Jezebel), the daughter of Et-Ba'al (אֶתְבַּעַל) and the wife of Ach-Av (אַחְאָב - Ahab) with whom Eli-Yahu (אֵלִיָּהוּ - Elijah) fought so hard (1 Kings 16:31 ff).

Sheva (שוה) is spelled very differently from either Be'er Sheva (באר שבע), or the one associated with the Yemenite Queen of Sheba (spelled שְׁבָא; cf 1 Kings 10:1), I take as a mis-pointing of Shaveh (שוה), the King's Dale as it was also called, the valley to the immediate north of Yeru-Shala'im where Av-Shalom established his cairn (2 Samuel 18:18) and was buried by King David. The cairn was a burial-chamber, and it needs few remarks to explain its cultic significance. The moon-goddess in her waning aspect (Hecate/She'ol) ruled the Underworld into which the dead were lain.

Machbenah (מכבנה) means a "bond".

Giv'ah (גבעה), usually rendered in English as Gibeah, is a high place, usually a hill-shrine.

Achsa (עכסה) has already been explained, though the question as to whether Achsa might not be the correct reading for Achish (אכיש) king of Gat is academic: Ayin (ע) versus Aleph (א), Samech (ס) versus Sheen (ש) - two completely different words.

1 Chronicles 7:15 has a Machir (מכיר), father of Gil'ad (גלעד), who married a Ma'achah, who bore him Peresh (פרש), yet a third word for the breaking of the corn (Shever and Sha'aph being the other two), and Sheresh (שרש) = "root" or "shoot". She is said to have been the sister of Chupim (חפים= coverings) and Shupim (שפים = serpents). Machir, the following verse informs us, was a son of Menasheh, and thus descended from the sun-god.

Practically all the references are of the Davidic era, and relate to the royal household. We are treating here of the queen-priestess, or even the goddess herself, and from these tales we can deduce a great deal about the local cults of Yeru-Shala'im in David's time. Ma'achah is obviously feminine, later masculinised to make a patriarchal eponym. There are few better examples than this one in the whole Tanach of how the ancient pagan myths and legends became buried by the Redactor, and of how literary archaeology can still dig through the rubble in order to piece the reality together again.

Finally, the root Ma'ach (מעך) means "to press" and is quite a specific verb: the castration of animals by crushing their testicles (Leviticus 22:24): a symbolic eunuchisation which in the case of the Kalebite priests may also have been literal. Ma'och (see 1 Samuel 27:2 and note above) was used to mean "a girdle round the breast", which was both an ornament - presumably some kind of necklace - but also an equivalent of the LEVIYAH, the garland or crown worn as a symbol of moon-kingship (see notes on LEVI and LOTAN). Thus again we have a symbol that connects Ma'achah to the moon. Achsa is likely of the same order.

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