Maon

Maon (meaning habitation or dwelling place) was a town in the hill country of Judah approximately seven miles south of Hebron, in the wilderness region where David took refuge from Saul. It gives its name to the Wilderness of Maon (1 Samuel 23:24–25), the area where David and his men narrowly escaped Saul — Saul was surrounding them on one side of a mountain when a messenger arrived reporting a Philistine raid, forcing Saul to withdraw. This close escape gave the location the name Sela Hammahlekoth ("rock of divisions" or "cliff of separation").

Nabal, the wealthy sheep-owner who refused David's request for provisions and whose wife Abigail intervened to prevent David's violent retaliation, was of Maon (1 Samuel 25:2). His three thousand sheep and a thousand goats grazed in the adjacent Carmel. The town is listed in Joshua 15:55 among the cities of Judah. Its location is generally associated with Khirbet Main, about eight miles south of Hebron.