A town in the highlands of Judah, about 16km south-east of Jerusalem, on the verge of the desert. It is perhaps best remembered as the home of the prophet Amos (Am 1:1).
The Judean Wilderness looking in the direction of Tekoa.
Tekoa seemed to have been more important to David than the OT narratives make plain. One of David's "heads of families, commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and their officers, who served the king in all that concerned the army divisions that were on duty month by month throughout the year" was Ira, son of Ikkesh, who had 24,000 men in his division. When David's son, Absalom fled after having killed his brother Amnon, David's commander Joab attempted a reconciliation between father and son. To accomplish this he sought out the help of a wise woman from Tekoa (2 Sam 14).
The men of the town were listed as those involved in the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the exile, though what was recorded did not reflect well on them: "the next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors" (Neh 3:5).
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