Masrekah
Mas'rekah (Heb. Masrekah', מִשׂרֵקָה, vineyard; Sept. Μασσεκκά, Μασεκκά), a place apparently in Idumuea, the native place of Samlah, one of the Edomitish kings (Ge 36:36; 1Ch 1:47). "The student will observe that while some of these kings are mentioned with the addition, 'and the name of his town was,' others are introduced as 'coming from' some other place. Kalisch (ad loc.) remarks that the former seems to comprise native Idumaeans, the latter foreigners. Eusebius and Jerome, however (Onomast. s.v. Masraca), locate Masrekah in Gebalene, a province embracing the northern part of Edom" (Kitto). "Interpreted as Hebrew, the name refers to vineyards — as if from Sarakc, a root with which we are familiar in the 'vine of Sorek,' that is, the choice vine; and, led by this, Knobel (Genesis, p. 257) proposes to place Masrekah in the district of the Idumuean mountains north of Petra, and along the Haj route, where Burckhardt found 'extensive vineyards,' and 'great quantities of dried grapes,' made by the tribe of the Refaya for the supply of Gaza and for the Mecca pilgrims (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 418). But this is mere conjecture, as no name at all corresponding with Masrekah has been yet discovered in that locality" (Smith). According to Schwarz (Palest. p. 215), there is still a town, eight miles south of Petra, called En-Masrak, which he thinks may be the locality. He probably refers to the place marked Ain Mafrak on Palmer's Map, and Ain el-Usdaka on Kiepert's.
