Hebrew: Modi'in ("Declarers")

Town in the northwestern lowlands of Judea just north of the ancient road from Jerusalem to Joppa, made famous as the site of the beginning of the Maccabean revolt (165 BCE). Judah Maccabee's father Mattathias moved his family there during Antiochus IV's Hellenization of Jerusalem, & he and his sons were all buried there. Simon, the last surviving brother of Judah Maccabee built an impressive family monument on the summit of the hill consisting of 7 pyramids linked by colonnades which became a site of Jewish pilgrimage for more than 7 centuries. Modein was also the hometown of the conservative tanna Eleazar ha Modi'i (2nd c. CE), who was influential in defining rabbinic Judaism.

References: Josephus, Antiquities 12.265-268, 285, 432; 13.210. 
                   _____, War 1.36.
                   1 Maccabees 2.1-27, 69.
                   Eusebius, Onimastikon 132:16-17

For further information about archaeological & historical evidence, see:

• Buttrick, G. A., ed. Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. vol. 3 (NY/Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962) p. 421.

Other resources on line:

• Modi'in - entry in Wikipedia on modern Israeli settlement summarizes dispute over location of historic site.

• Khirbat Umm-El 'Umdan - 2006 field report on excavations at possible site of ancient Modi'in published in Journal Ha-Esi 118 [posted on Hadashot Arkheologiyot].