taanach Summary and Overview

a sandy place, an ancient royal city of the Canaanites, on the south-western border of the plain of Esdraelon, 4 miles south of Megiddo. Its king was conquered by Joshua (12:21). It was assigned to the Levites of the family of Kohath (17:11-18; 21:25). It is mentioned in the song of Deborah (Judg. 5:19). It is identified with the small modern village of Ta'annuk.

(sandy), an ancient Canaanitish city whose king is enumerated among the thirty-one kings conquered by Joshua. #Jos 12:21| It came into the half tribe of Manasseh, #Jos 17:11; 21:25; 1Ch 7:29| and was bestowed on the Kohathite Levites. #Jos 21:25| Taanach is almost always named in company with Megiddo, and they were evidently the chief towns of that fine rich district which forms the western portion of the great plain of Esdraelon. #1Ki 4:12| It is still called Ta'annuk, and) stands about four miles southeast of Lejjun and 13 miles southwest of Nazareth.

TA'ANACH , and TA'NACH (sandy soil), an old city of the Canaanites. Josh 12:21. Joshua conquered its king, and it was in the territory of Issachar, but assigned to Manasseh, and then to the Levites. Josh 17:11-18; Josh 21:25; Jud 1:27. Barak's victory was gained at Tabor, not very near Taanach, as some assert. Jud 5:19. In later times, with Megiddo and other places, this city formed a part of one of Solomon's commissariat districts. 1 Kgs 4:12. The Aner of 1 Chr 6:70 may possibly be the same as Taanach. Taanach was situated on the south-western edge of the plain of Esdraelon, 4 miles south of Megiddo, 13 miles southsouth-west of Nazareth, and 48 miles north of Jerusalem. The village is situated on the southern side of a large isolated hill, or tell which is covered with ruins, cisterns, and rock-hewn tombs. The modern village is a mean one bearing the name of Taanak.

("sandy soil".) An old city of Canaan. Joshua conquered its king (Joshua 12:21). It was afterward assigned to Manasseh (1 Chronicles 7:29), and became a Levitical city (1 Chronicles 17:11-12; 1 Chronicles 21:25). Israel failed to drive out its aboriginal occupants (Judges 1:27), The scene of Barak's victory was not Taanach or Megiddo, but Mount Tabor, near the sources of the Kishon, three miles W. of Mount Tabor (el Mujahiyeh, "the spring head"): Judges 4:7-14. Barak had all the advantage of a rush down the hill upon the foe in the plain, as Napoleon had in his battle of Mount Tabor; had the battle been in Taanach he would have had to come the whole width of the plain to attack from low ground the foe on the spurs of the hills far away from the main bed of the Kishon.

"In Taanach" (Judges 5:19) must be a general name for the district of which Taanach is the capital; or else must be translated "sandy soil," which abounds all over the plain. "The waters of Megiddo" in Judges 5:19 are those of the stream Jalud, supplied from springs round Mejedda, a ruin near Beisan (Bethsheart). (Israel Exploration Quarterly Statement, January 1877, p. 13-20.) Taanach and Megiddo (1 Kings 4:12) were the chief towns of the fertile tract which forms the western part of the great Esdraelon valley. Now Ta'annuk, a small village with ruins on a flat tell, an hour and a quarter S.E. of Megiddo.