Maktesh
Mak'tesh (Heb. Maktesh', מִכתֵּשׁ [but with the art.], a mortar, as in Pr 27:12, or the sockets of a tooth, as in Jg 15:19; Sept. renders κατακεκομμένη, Vulg. Pila), a place in or near Jerusalem, mentioned as inhabited. apparently by silver-merchants (Zep 1:11). Gesenius regards it as the name of a valley, so called from its mortar-like shape (Thesaurus, p. 725). The rabbins understand the Kedron and other less likely places to be meant. Ewald conjectures (Propheten, p. 364) that it was the "Phoenician quarter" of the city, in which the traders of that nation-the Canaanites (A. Vers. "merchants"), who in this passage are associated with Maktesh — resided, after the custom in Oriental towns. Dr. Barclay (City of the Great King, p. 100,157, 173) ingeniously suggests that it may have been a quarter devoted to minting operations, and therefore situated near the goldsmith's bazaar, which was doubtless located somewhere in Acra or the lower city, but whether in the Tyropceon adjoining the Temple, where he places it, is uncertain.
