("dropping".) A town coupled with Bethlehem in Nehemiah 7:26, also in 1 Chronicles 2:54; therefore near it. Two of David's heroes (1 Chronicles 27:1; 1 Chronicles 27:13; 1 Chronicles 27:15), captains of two of the 12 monthly military courses, were NETOPHATHITES (2 Samuel 23:28-29). "Villages of Netophathites" were Levite singers' residences (1 Chronicles 9:16; Nehemiah 12:28). The Targum (1 Chronicles 2:54; Rth 4:20; Ecclesiastes 3:11) states that they slew the guards whom Jeroboam stationed on the roads to Jerusalem, to intercept the firstfruits from the villages to the temple. The fast on the 23rd Sivan, still in the Jewish calendar, commemorates Jeroboam's opposition. Between Bethlehem and Anathoth. Noticed as "in the wilderness" of Judah in the Acta Sanctorum. Answering to the ruin Metoba. N.E. of Bethlehem on the edge of the Mar Saba desert.