A city in the hill country of Judah listed in Joshua 15:59. The name may derive from the Canaanite warrior goddess Anath, or from the Hebrew anah (H6030), to answer or reply. Anathoth itself was the hometown of Jeremiah and Abiathar the priest.
Names connected to Anath — the Canaanite goddess of war — remind us that Israel inhabited a land thick with pagan spiritual history. Yet God established His people in this very territory, commissioning them to displace the false gods and establish covenant worship. Anathoth (the sister name) became the hometown of the weeping prophet Jeremiah — a man whose very calling was to "answer" (anah) the LORD's word to a rebellious generation. God transforms the sites of false worship into staging grounds for true prophecy. Where idols once spoke, prophets of the living God arise.