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Zorah - location profile

Location and Setting

• Zorah was a city located in the Shephelah foothills on the northern side of the Sorek Valley directly opposite the town of Beth-shemesh. It was on the western border of Judah (Josh 15:33).
• The city was located fifteen miles west of Jerusalem and five miles east of Timnah.
• Zorah was situated on a wooded hill that was a strategic site for defending the route leading up to Jerusalem through the Sorek Valley.

Historical and Biblical Significance

• Zorah was in the territory allotted to the tribe of Dan (Josh 19:41).
• During one of the periods of Philistine oppression of Israel, an angel came to the barren wife of Manoah the Danite, a resident of Zorah. The angel told her that she would give birth to a son who was to be a Nazirite and would deliver Israel from the Philistines. Her son was Samson. God’s Spirit began to work in him when he was in the area between Zorah and Eshtaol, less than two miles to the northeast (Judg 13:1-25).
• After Samson died in Gaza, his body was brought back to be buried in his father’s tomb between Zorah and Eshtaol (Judg 16:31).
• Five spies from Zorah and Eshtaol were sent out to find a land suitable for the tribe of Dan, because they had been unable to drive out the Philistines who occupied their tribal territory. They found a peaceful place at Laish, a town in northern Israel near the foot of Mount Hermon on one of the sources of the Jordan River. When the spies returned with their favorable report, six hundred armed Danite men left Zorah and Eshtaol to capture Laish. Laish was taken and renamed Dan (Judg 18:1-29).
• Probably Judeans from Kiriath-jearim settled in Zorah after the Danites moved to Laish (1 Chr 2:50-53).
• Rehoboam built one of his fortresses at Zorah to defend against enemy access to the hill country and Jerusalem (2 Chr 11:5-12).

Bibliography

1. Lockyer, Sr., Herbert, ed. Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986.
2. Thompson J. Arthur "Zorah" The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Ed. Merrill C. Tenney. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.