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Zorah

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History

Zorah is Tel Tzora, a high hill on the north side of the Sorek valley, about 23 km west of Jerusalem and some 3 km north of Beth-shemesh, where the hills of Judah meet the Shephelah. The Arab village of Sar'a on the hill kept the ancient name until 1948, and Eshtaol, usually named with Zorah in the Bible, lay close by. Caves, tombs, cisterns and winepresses have been found on and around the hill.

Zorah probably appears already in the Amarna letters of the fourteenth century BC. A ruler known as the Lady of the Lionesses warned Pharaoh that his land was going over to the Apiru, roving armed bands, and that the Apiru had written to Ayyaluna, that is Aijalon, and to Sarha, which is usually taken to be Zorah.

In the Book of Joshua Zorah is counted among the towns of the lowland of Judah and is also listed in the inheritance of Dan. It was the home of Manoah, "a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites", whose son Samson the Spirit of the LORD began to move "in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol"; after his death Samson was buried between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying place of his father. From Zorah and Eshtaol the Danites sent five men to spy out the land and then six hundred armed men, who took Laish in the far north and named it Dan. Rehoboam fortified Zorah with Aijalon, and after the exile men of Judah lived there again, as Nehemiah records.

Josephus says that Samson's kindred buried him at Sarasat, his own country. In the early fourth century AD Eusebius knew Saraa as a village in the district of Eleutheropolis, about ten miles to the north on the road to Nicopolis, and pointed it out as the home of Samson.

Scripture: Josh 15:33; Josh 19:41; Judg 13:2; Judg 13:24–25; Judg 16:31; Judg 18:2; Judg 18:11; Judg 18:27–29; 2 Chr 11:10; Neh 11:29

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (11)

Josh 15:33

And in the valley, Eshtaol, and Zoreah, and Ashnah,

Josh 19:41

And the coast of their inheritance was Zorah, and Eshtaol, and Ir-shemesh,

Judg 13:2

And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.

Judg 13:25

And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Judg 16:31

Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

Judg 18:2

And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.

Judg 18:8

And they came unto their brethren to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brethren said unto them, What say ye?

Judg 18:11

And there went from thence of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men appointed with weapons of war.

1 Chr 2:53

And the families of Kirjath-jearim; the Ithrites, and the Puhites, and the Shumathites, and the Mishraites; of them came the Zareathites, and the Eshtaulites.

2 Chr 11:10

And Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin fenced cities.

Neh 11:29

And at En-rimmon, and at Zareah, and at Jarmuth,

King James Version

Tours through this place

• Deborah, Gideon, Samson →
• The tribe of Dan moves north →