Meroz

Meroz appears once in Scripture in the famous Song of Deborah following Israel's victory over Sisera at the Kishon River: "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty" (Judges 5:23). The unnamed angel singles out Meroz for unique condemnation — apparently the town lay astride Sisera's retreat route and could have cut off his escape but stood neutral instead. The neutrality became a cautionary case study throughout Jewish tradition about the spiritual cost of refusing to take sides when the Lord goes to war. The site is unidentified.