Atroth-beth-joab

Atroth-beth-joab ("the crowns of the house of Joab") was a small settlement in the southern hill country of Judah named only in the Calebite genealogy of 1 Chronicles 2:54: "The sons of Salma; Bethlehem, and the Netophathites, Ataroth, the house of Joab, and half of the Manahethites, the Zorites." The settlement is one of several small Judahite communities preserved as place-names within the broader Calebite-Bethlehemite family network. The exact location is unknown but lay in the cluster of small farming villages around Bethlehem and Netophah south of Jerusalem.