TEKOITE

(Te·koʹite).

An inhabitant of Tekoa. (2 Chron. 11:6; Jer. 6:1) The term is applied to Ikkesh, the father of David’s warrior Ira (2 Sam. 23:26; 1 Chron. 11:28; 27:9); likewise to a wise woman who, at the behest of Joab, feigned widowhood before David in a scheme to accomplish Absalom’s return from banishment. (2 Sam. 14:2, 4, 9) After the return from Babylonian exile, Tekoites were among those who shared in repairing Jerusalem’s walls, though their “majestic ones” (“nobles,” AT) took no part in the work.—Neh. 3:5, 27.