Masrekah

Masrekah was the royal city of Samlah, the fifth of the eight Edomite kings listed in Genesis 36:31-39 as ruling "before any king reigned over the Israelites" (Genesis 36:36, 1 Chronicles 1:47). The name means "vineyard" or "place of choice vines," suggesting a hill country location favorable for viticulture. The Edomite king-list deliberately catalogs eight successive monarchs with their fathers and capitals — Bela of Dinhabah, Jobab of Bozrah, Husham the Temanite, Hadad of Avith, Samlah of Masrekah, Shaul of Rehoboth on the river, Baal-hanan, and Hadar of Pau — demonstrating that the descendants of Esau had developed a formal monarchy generations before Israel asked Samuel for a king. The exact site of Masrekah is unknown but lay somewhere in the highlands of Edom south of the Dead Sea.