Zorah
City
Place of wasps, a town in the low country of Judah, afterwards given to Dan (Josh. 19:41; Judg. 18:2), probably the same as Zoreah (Josh. 15:33). This was Samson’s birthplace (Judg. 13:2, 25), and near it he found a grave (16:31). It was situated on the crest of a hill overlooking the valley of Sorek, and was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chr. 11:10). It has been identified with Sur’ah, in the Wady Surar, 8 miles west of Jerusalem. It is noticed on monuments in the fifteenth century B.C. as attacked by the Abiri or Hebrews.
Named in 9 verses
- Joshua 15:33 In the lowland, Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah,
- Joshua 19:41 The border of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Irshemesh,
- Judges 13:2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and childless.
- Judges 13:25 Yahweh’s Spirit began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
- Judges 16:31 Then his brothers 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 burial site of Mano
- Judges 18:2 The children of Dan sent five men of their family from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it. They
- Judges 18:8 They came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brothers asked them, “What do you say?”
- Judges 18:11 The family of the Danites set out from Zorah and Eshtaol with six hundred men armed with weapons of war.
- 2 Chronicles 11:10 Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, which are fortified cities in Judah and in Benjamin.