The community was named after five villages that were there in the times of the Mishna and the Talmud, and its Greek name was preserved in the name of the village Pentakomia (Penta= five in Greek). In 1978 Homesh was established as a Nahal nucleus by the name of “Ma’ale Nahal” on a high mountain looking out over wide plains “from Hadera to Gadera” (650 meters above sea level). In 1981 the place was naturalized and became a secular community in the Shomron regional council as part of the National Worker Settlement Movement. In the 90s, a large group of families from the former USSR joined the founding nucleus, and in the 2000s some young religious couples came to the community and became part of the special social fabric of the place and even established a Yeshiva in the community.