Metheg-Ammah

From BibleEncyclopedia.Net

mē-theg-am´a, meth-eg-am´a (מתג האמּה , methegh hā-'ammāh, “bridle of the metropolis,” or "Bridle of the mother"; Septuagint τὴν ἀφορισμένην, tḗn aphorisménēn):

A figurative name for a chief city, as in 2 Samuel 8:1, “David took Metheg-Ammah out of the hand of the Philistines” (R.V., “took the bridle of the mother-city”); i.e., subdued their capital or strongest city, viz., Gath (1 Chronicles 18:1).

It is probable that the place-name Metheg-Ammah in 2 Samuel 8:1 the King James Version should be rendered as in the Revised Version (British and American), “the bridle of the mother city,” i.e. Gath, since we find in the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 18:1 גּת וּבנתיה , gath ūbhenōthehā, “Gath and her daughters,” i.e. daughter towns. The Septuagint has an entirely different reading: “and David took the tribute out of the hand of the Philistines,” showing that they had a different text from what we now have in the Hebrew. The text is evidently corrupt. If a place is intended its site is unknown, but it must have been in the Philistine plain and in the vicinity of Gath.