1:1 Tekoa, five miles southeast of Bethlehem, has a commanding view of the region and was the home to: "Ira the son of Ikkesh" one of David's mighty men (2 Sam 23:26; 1 Chr 11:28; 27:9);  the "wise woman of Tekoa" who tried to bring reconciliation between David and Absalom (2 Sam 14:2); certain Tekoites who repaired part of the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 3:5); and most famously, Amos the eighth century prophet, herdsman (Amos 1:1) and dresser of sycamore-fig trees (Amos 7:14).  Jerome says that Amos was buried in Tekoa as well (Commentary on Jeremiah, VI, 1). In the Greek version of Joshua 15:59, Tekoa is mentioned as part of Judah.  Tekoa had been fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chr 11:6; Josephus, Antiquities, 8, ix, 1), and in the wilderness of Tekoa (2 Chr 20:20)  Jehoshaphat took counsel there before advancing into the wilderness of Judea to confront the Ammonites and Moabites. Jeremiah warned Judah to flee south, away from the enemy advancing from the north (Jer 6:1), which played upon the sound tikehu Tekoa, "blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise a signal in Beth-haccherim."  The name Tekoa may allude to taaqa' "to strike" – stakes that were pounded into the ground for shepherd’s tents.  Jonathan Maccabeus and his brother Simon fled from the vengeance of the Greek Bacchides "into the wilderness of Tekoe and encamped by the water of the pool Asphar" (1 Macc 9:33), possibly a connection with Tekoa's father named Ashhur (1 Chr 2:24, 4:5).  In the sixth century, a monastery called Laura Nova was founded at Tekoa by Saba, probably because Amos was believed to be buried there.  Today the site called Khirbet Tequ'a is in ruins, having been built over in part by the modern town and is vandalized thoroughly.