ATAD

(Aʹtad) [thorny bush or bramble].

A place of uncertain location in the region of the Jordan was called “the threshing floor of Atad.” There Jacob’s funeral cortege stopped for seven days of mourning while en route from Egypt to the cave of the field of Machpelah in Canaan. Atad may have been a person, but the name itself appears to designate a thorny locale. The funeral party included Pharaoh’s servants and the older men of Egypt, and when the Canaanites saw the mourning rites, they exclaimed: “This is a heavy mourning for the Egyptians!” Hence, the place was called Abel-mizraim, meaning “mourning of the Egyptians.”—Gen. 50:7-13.

Various translations (for example, AS, AT, RS) use “beyond the Jordan” at Genesis 50:10, 11, and some conclude that the threshing floor of Atad was situated E of the Jordan River. This would mean that the procession took, not a direct, but a circuitous route, around the Dead Sea, which it could have done in order to avoid contact with the Philistines. However, the Hebrew word ʽeʹver, translated “beyond,” can refer to a region either E or W of the Jordan. From Moses’ viewpoint in the land of Moab at the time of the completion (and possible final editing) of the Pentateuch, “beyond the Jordan” could mean W of the river. Yet, all difficulties are overcome by NW, which accurately renders the Hebrew text “in the region of the Jordan” in these verses.

ATARAH

(Atʹa·rah) [a crown or wreath].

One of the wives of Jerahmeel of the tribe of Judah and the mother of Onam.—1 Chron. 2:3-5, 25, 26.

ATAROTH

(Atʹa·roth) [crowns; wreaths].

1. A town on the E side of the Jordan, among those requested by the tribes of Gad and Reuben as their possession. The section was considered especially suitable for the livestock of these tribes. (Num. 32:1-5) The town was thereafter rebuilt by the Gadites.—Num. 32:34.

The Moabite Stone of King Mesha also mentions this place, in lines 10 and 11 of the inscription. In part it says. “Now, the people of Gad had dwelt in the land of Ataroth from ancient times and the king of Israel had built Ataroth. And I fought against the city, and I captured it and killed all the people of the city . . . And I carried away from there the altar of his God . . . And I peopled it with men from Sharon and Maharath.”

The location of this site is generally considered to be present-day Khirbet ʽAttarus, about ten miles (16 kilometers) E of the Dead Sea and some eight miles (13 kilometers) NW of Dibon (mentioned after Ataroth in Numbers 32:3). The ruins are located on the western slope of a mountain bearing the same name and about 2,500 feet (760 meters) high. Although this location is within the territory of Reuben, it appears that there was some mutual sharing of tribal territory between Gad and Reuben.

2. A town along the boundary between the territories of Ephraim and Benjamin. (Josh. 16:2) It is evidently the same as Ataroth-addar referred to at Joshua 16:5 and 18:13. In this latter verse it is presented as forming part of the N boundary of Benjamin and as located “upon the mountain that is on the south of Lower Beth-horon.” It is tentatively identified with the site of Kefr ʽAqab, about seven miles (11 kilometers) N of Jerusalem, and about eight miles (10 kilometers) E-SE of Lower Beth-horon (modern Beit ʽUr et-Tahta).

3. A town on the NE boundary of the tribe of Ephraim. (Josh. 16:7) The most recent identification places it at Tell el-Mazar, located on an eminence at the edge of the Jordan valley, near the confluence of the Jabbok and Jordan Rivers. The point is strategic, as the site dominates the entrance to the Wadi el-Farʽah, which leads up into the hill country of Samaria.

ATAROTH-ADDAR

(Atʹa·roth-adʹdar) [glorious crown].

A town in Ephraim. (Josh. 16:5; 18:13) The position described indicates it to be the same as Ataroth in Joshua 16:2.—See ATAROTH No. 2.

ATER

(Aʹter) [perhaps, crippled one, left-handed one, or bound].

1. A man of Israel, ninety-eight of whose sons or descendants returned from Babylonian captivity with Zerubbabel in 537 B.C.E. (Ezra 2:1, 2, 16; Neh. 7:21) They are listed thus: “The sons of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight,” perhaps indicating that they were offspring of Ater, the descendant of a certain Hezekiah (but probably not the Judean king of that name), or that they were Ater’s descendants through one Hezekiah. It may be a descendant of this Ater who was one of the headmen of the people attesting by seal the “trustworthy arrangement” of Nehemiah’s day.—Neh. 9:38; 10:1, 17.

2. A family head whose offspring were among the Levitical “sons of the gatekeepers” of the temple who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel.—Ezra 2:42; Neh. 7:45.

ATHACH

(Aʹthach) [lodging place].

A town of Judah mentioned among the places to which David sent portions of the spoil resulting from his victory over the raiding Amalekites. (1 Sam. 30:26, 30) The location is uncertain.

ATHAIAH

(A·thaiʹah) [Jehovah has succored].

A man of the tribe of Judah, a descendant of Perez, listed with other residents of Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s time, after the release from Babylonian captivity.—Neh. 11:4-6.

ATHALIAH

(Ath·a·liʹah) [possibly, Yah(u) is great, exalted].

1. Queen of Judah, daughter of King Ahab of Israel and his wife Jezebel, and granddaughter of Omri. (2 Ki. 8:18, 26) She was the sister of Israel’s King Jehoram, and sister or half sister of the other seventy sons of Ahab, all of whom Jehu ordered killed. (2 Ki. 3:1, 2; 10:1-9) Athaliah was given in a marriage of political expediency to Jehoram, the eldest son of Jehoshaphat of Judah. (2 Ki. 8:27; 2 Chron. 18:1) She was the mother of Ahaziah, who in time became king of Judah.

Like her mother Jezebel, Athaliah egged on her husband Jehoram to do what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes during his eight-year reign. (1 Ki. 21:25; 2 Chron. 21:4-6) And like her mother, Athaliah wantonly shed the blood of the innocent. When her wicked son Ahaziah died after a one-year reign, she killed off all the others of the royal line, except the infant Jehoash, who had been hidden by the high priest and his wife, who was Jehoash’s aunt. Thereupon Athaliah installed herself as queen for six years, 904-898 B.C.E. (2 Chron. 22:11, 12) During this time she robbed Jehovah’s temple of the holy things and offered them up to Baal.—2 Chron. 24:7.

When Jehoash reached seven years of age, God-fearing high priest Jehoiada brought the lad out of secrecy and crowned him rightful heir to the throne. Hearing the tumult, Athaliah rushed to the temple and, upon seeing what was happening, cried, “Conspiracy! Conspiracy!” High Priest Jehoiada ordered her taken outside the temple grounds to be executed at the horse gate of the palace; she was perhaps the last of Ahab’s abominable house. (2 Ki. 11:1-20; 2 Chron. 22:1–23:21) How true it proved to be: “Nothing of Jehovah’s word will fall unfulfilled to the earth that Jehovah has spoken against the house of Ahab”!—2 Ki. 10:10, 11.

2. A Benjamite of the house of Jeroham who dwelt in Jerusalem.—1 Chron. 8:26-28.

3. Father of one who returned to Jerusalem with Ezra in 468 B.C.E.; of the family of Elam.—Ezra 8:1, 7.