Maroth

Maroth (meaning bitterness) was a town in the Shephelah of Judah, mentioned only in Micah 1:12 in the prophet's lament over the Assyrian advance. Micah depicts its inhabitants as waiting anxiously for good news but receiving only disaster, with calamity descending from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem. The name's meaning — bitterness — is woven into Micah's series of puns on Judean town names, in which each city's name resonates ironically with its coming fate.