Moladah
Mola'dah (Heb. Moladah', מוֹלָדָה [in Nehemiah , מֹלָדָה], birth; Sept. Μωλαδά v.r. Μωδαδά, etc.), a city in the southern part of the tribe of Judah towards the Edomitish border (Jos 15:26), which fell within the portion set off to Simeon (Jos 19:2; 1Ch 4:28). It was also occupied after the exile (Ne 11:26). Reland (Palaest. page 901) thinks it was the Malatha (Μάλαθα) mentioned by Josephus (Ant. 18:6, 2) as a castle of Idurmaea, to which Agrippa retired in chagrin after his return from Rome. Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s.v. Α᾿ραμά) allude to it (Μαλαθί) as a place four Roman miles distant from Arad, which latter they describe as an ancient city of the Amorites situated in the wilderness of Kadesh, and twenty miles from Hebron, on the road to Aila (see Reland, Palaest. page 885). At a later period Malatha became a Roman colony (Reland, p. 231). Dr. Robinson (Researches, 2:621) finds the locality in the present el-Milh, first observed by Schubert (Reise, 2:454), consisting of extensive ruins with a well, situated at the required distance from the site of Arad (comp. Schwarz, Palest. page 100). The present name, signifying "salt," has little affinity with the Heb. appellation, but may be a corruption of it (Wilson, Lands of the Bible, 1:346; Van de Velde, Memoir, page 335 ; Ritter, Pal. und Syr. 1:124; Tristram, Land of Israel, page 369 sq.; Stewart, Tent and Khan, page 217).
