about an hour and a quarter to the north of Nazareth (Rob. iii. p. 209; V. de Velde, Mem. p. 312). Eth-kazin is unknown. Rimmon, a Levitical town (Jos 21:35; 1Ch 6:62), has probably been preserved in the village of Rummaneh, about two hours and a half to the north of Nazareth (Rob. iii. p. 195). Ham-methoar is not a proper name, but the participle of תּאר, with the article in the place of the relative pronoun, “bounded off,” or pricked off. Neah is unknown; it is possibly the same place as Neiel in the tribe of Asher (Jos 19:27), as Knobel supposes.
Verse 14
“And the boundary turned round it (round Rimmon),on the north to Channathon, and the outgoings thereof were the valley of Jiphtah-el.” Judging from the words נסב and מצּפון, this verse apparently gives the north-west boundary, since the last definition in Jos 19:13, “to Gath-hepher,” etc., points to the eastern boundary. Jiphtah-el answers no doubt to the present Jefât, two hours and a half to the north of Sefurieh, and is the Jotapata which was obstinately defended by Josephus (Bell. Jud. iii. 7, 9: see Rob. Bibl. Res. pp. 104ff.). Consequently the valley of Jiphtah-el, at which Zebulun touched Asher (Jos 19:27), is probably “no other than the large Wady Abilîn, which takes its rise in the hills in the neighbourhood of Jefât” (Rob. Bibl. Res. p. 107). And if this be correct, Channathon (lxx Ἐνναθώθ) is probably Cana of Galilee, the home of Nathanael (Joh 2:1, Joh 2:11; Joh 4:46; Joh 21:2), the present Kana el Jelil, between Rummaneh and Yefât, on the northern edge of the plain of Buttauf, upon a Tell, from which you overlook the plain, fully two hours and a half in a straight line from Nazareth, and directly north of that place, where there are many ruins found (see Rob. iii. p. 204; Bibl. Res. p. 108).
Verses 15-16
The towns of Zebulun were the following. Kattath, probably the same as Kitron, which is mentioned in Jdg 1:30 in connection with Nahalol, but which is still unknown. Nehalal, or Nahalol (Jdg 1:30), is supposed by V. de Velde (Mem. p. 335), who follows Rabbi Schwartz, to be the present village of Maalul, a place with ruins on the south-west of Nazareth (see Seetzen, ii. p. 143; Rob. iii. App.; and Ritter, Erdk. xvi. p. 700). Simron is supposed by Knobel to be the village of Semunieh (see at Jos 11:1). But neither of these is very probable. Idalah is supposed by V. de Velde to be the village of Jeda or Jeida, on the west of Semunieh, where are a few relics of antiquity, though Robinson (Bibl. Res. p. 113) states the very opposite. Bethlehem (of Zebulun), which many regard as the home of the judge Ibzan (Jdg 12:8), has been preserved under the old name in a miserable
