Difference between revisions of "Dothan"

<p> <strong> [[Dothan]] </strong> (&nbsp; [[Genesis]] 37:17 , &nbsp; 2 Kings 6:13-18; <strong> Dotæa </strong> , Jdt 3:9; <strong> [[Dothaim]] </strong> , Jdt 4:6 etc.). To-day, <em> Tell Dothan </em> , a remarkable isolated hill at the S.E. corner of a great plain <em> Sahl ’Arrâbeh </em> ; surrounded on three sides by hills (&nbsp; 2 Kings 6:17 ). [[Clearly]] a place suitable for defence, it must have been of importance when the neighbouring high-road, still much used, was a main thoroughfare from [[Damascus]] to Egypt. The situation is, too, a choice one on account of its abundant fountain, now used to work a mill and irrigate fruit gardens; two ancient wells and a number of empty cisterns (&nbsp; Genesis 37:24 ) are also found near the foot of the <em> tell </em> . Great herds of cattle, sheep, and goats from the neighbouring abundant pastures, may always be found gathered there in the afternoon drinking from the water and browsing in the shade. Although there are no ancient remains on the surface, traces of walls may be seen all around the hill top. </p> <p> E. W. G. Masterman. </p>

<p> [[Dothan]] (''Dô'Than'' ), ''Two Cisterns.'' Where Joseph found his brethren, &nbsp;Genesis 37:17, and [[Elisha]] resided. &nbsp;2 Kings 6:13. It was on the south side of the plain of Jezreel, 12 miles north of Samaria; now called Tel-Dothân, five miles southwest of Jenin. Numerous bottled-shaped cisterns hewn in the rock are still found, which are supposed to resemble the "pit" of &nbsp;Genesis 37:24. Caravans still pass this place, as of old, on their way from Damascus to Egypt. </p>

<p> (Hebrews Dothan', דֹּתָן, contracted for דֹּתִיַן, two cisterns, which occurs with ה directive, ''Dotha'Yenah'' , דֹּת יְנָה, "to Dathan," &nbsp;Genesis 37:17 [first clause]; Sept. Δωδαείμ and Δωδαϊ v μ, the latter in Judith; Vulg. ''Dothain'' ), the place where Joseph found his brethren, who had wandered thither with their flocks from Shechem, and where he was treacherously sold by them to the [[Ishmaelites]] (&nbsp;Genesis 37:17). It next appears as the residence of Elisha, and the scene of a remarkable vision of horses and chariots of fire surrounding "the mountain" (הָהָר ) on which the city stood, while the Syrians were smitten with blindness at the word of Elisha (&nbsp;2 Kings 6:13). It is not again mentioned in the O.T. (Reland, Palaest. page 739); but later still we encounter it — then evidently well known — as a landmark in the account of Holofernes's campaign against [[Bethulia]] (&nbsp;Judith 4:6; &nbsp;Judith 7:3; &nbsp;Judith 7:18; &nbsp;Judith 8:3). In the Vat., and Alex., and Vulg. text — it is also mentioned in &nbsp;Judith 3:9, where the A.V. has "Judaea" (Ι᾿ουδαία for Δωταία ). This passage was a great puzzle to the old geographers, not only from the corrupt reading, Ι᾿ουδαίας, but also from the expression, still found in the text, τοῦ πρίονος τοῦ μεγάλου; A.V. "the great strait," literally, "the great saw." The knot was cut by Reland, who conjectured most ingeniously that πρίων was the translation of מִשּׂוֹר Massor = a saw, which was a corruption of מַישׁוֹר, Mishor" the plain" (Palaest. page 742 sq.). All these passages testify to its situation being in the center of the country, near the southern edge of the great plain of Esdraelon. Dothan is placed by [[Eusebius]] and [[Jerome]] twelve Roman miles north of Sebaste; or [[Samaria]] (Onomast. s.v. Δωθαείμ, [[Dothaim]] ). The well into which Joseph was cast by his brothers, and consequently the site of Dothan, has, however, been placed by tradition in a very distant quarter, namely, about three miles south-east from Safed, where there is a khan called [[Khan]] Jubb Yusuf, the Khan of Joseph's Pit, because the well connected with it has long passed among [[Christians]] and [[Moslems]] for the well in question (Robinson, Res. 3:317). The true site of Dothan was known to the [[Jewish]] traveler Rabbi ha-Parchi, A.D. 1300 (see Zunz's extracts in notes to [[Benjamin]] of Tudela, Asher's ed. 2:434), and to Schwarz, A.D. 1845 (Palest. page 168); but neither of these travelers gives any account of the site. It was accidentally discovered in 1852 by [[Van]] de Velde (Narrative, 1:364-369). Dr. Robinson, in his last visit to Palestine, likewise identified the true site of Dothan in the modern name Dothan, a place which he found in the middle of a beautiful plain extending south-westerly from Kefr Kud (Capharcotia) to Attil, southeast of Lejjunm. He thus speaks of it: "It is now a fine green tell (knoll), with a fountain on its southern base, corresponding entirely to the position assigned to it by Eusebius. We were told at Ya'bad that the great road from Beisan and Zer'in to Ramleh and Egypt still leads through this plain, entering it west of Jenin, passing near Kefr Kud, and bending south-westward around Ya'bud to the western plain. It is easy to see, therefore, that the Midianites, to whom Joseph was sold in Dothan, had crossed the [[Jordan]] at Beisin, and were proceeding to Egypt along the ordinary road. It is obvious, too, that Joseph's brethren well knew the best places for pasturage. They had exhausted that of the Mukna by [[Shechem]] (Nablus), and had afterwards repaired to the still finer pastures here around Dothan"'(Bibliotheca Sacra, 1853, pages 122, 123). </p>

<p> '''''dō´than''''' ( דּתין , <i> '''''dōthayı̄n''''' </i> , דּתן , <i> '''''dōthān''''' </i> , "two wells," "double feast"; Δωθάειμ , <i> '''''Dōtháeim''''' </i> ): A place to the North of Shechem whither Jacob's sons went for pasture for the flocks; where Joseph who followed them was sold to the Ishmaelites, after having been imprisoned in a "pit" (&nbsp;Genesis 37:17 ). Here in later days the eyes of Elisha's servant were opened to see the mountain "full of horses and chariots of fire," guarding his master from the encircling Syrians (&nbsp;2 Kings 6:13 ). This is certainly to be identified with <i> '''''Tell Dōthān''''' </i> , which lies on the East of the ancient road leading from [[Gilead]] across Esdraelon to the seacoast, and thence to Egypt. It is about 5 miles to the Southwest of <i> '''''Jenı̄n''''' </i> . There are some traces of old buildings, two cisterns - <i> '''''Dōthayin''''' </i> or <i> '''''Dōthayim''''' </i> = "two cisterns" or "pits" - and one copious spring. [[Excellent]] pasture is found in the surrounding plain, and on the adjoining slopes. </p>