Zaanaim, Zaanannim or Bezaanaim is a place name applied to one or two locations in the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" . '' According to Serge Frolov (2013), its location "cannot be determined with any degree of certainty."
The area was likely given the name Zaanaim because nomads camped there in tents among the towns and cities, with the name meaning "wanderings" or "the unloading of tents."
According to Joshua 19:33, the border of the tribe of Naftali passed by the "oak in Zaanannim" (''Revised Version'').
According to Judges 4:11,
Heber the Kenite
Jael () or Yael (' ''Yāʿēl'') is a heroine of the Bible who aids the Israelites in their war with King Jabin of the city of Hazor in Canaan by killing Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army. This episode is depicted in chapters 4 and 5 of ...
's tent, in which
Jael
Jael () or Yael (' ''Yāʿēl'') is a heroine of the Bible who aids the Israelites in their war with King Jabin of the city of Tel Hazor, Hazor in Canaan by killing Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army. This episode is depicted in Judges 4, cha ...
killed
Sisera
Sisera ( ''Sīsərāʾ'') was commander of the Canaanite army of King Jabin of Hazor, who is mentioned in of the Hebrew Bible. After being defeated by the forces of the Israelite tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali under the command of Barak and ...
, was "as far as the oak in Zaanannim" (''Revised Version''). Where the
Revised Version
The Revised Version (RV) or English Revised Version (ERV) of the Bible is a late-19th-century British revision of the King James Version. It was the first (and remains the only) officially authorised and recognised revision of the King James Vers ...
reads "oak," the
King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...
reads "plain." According to Cheyne and Black, an acceptable alternative reading for "oak" in these passages is "terebinth".
Where the ''Revised Version'' has "in Zaanannim" above, the Hebrew text reads ''bṣʿnnym.'' It has been, however, suggested by some that, following the
Septuagint
The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...
For the Septuagint's reading (''Besemiin'' or ''Besenanim''), see the ''New English Translation of the Septuagint'' at Joshua (Iesous) 19:3 and the
Talmud
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
, the letter "b", which in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
means "in," should be taken as a part of the word following, and the phrase would then be "unto the oak of Bitzanaim," a place which has been identified with the ruins of Bessum, about half-way between
Tiberias
Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...
and
Mount Tabor
Mount Tabor ( ; ; ), sometimes spelled Mount Thabor, is a large hill of biblical significance in Lower Galilee, Northern District (Israel), northern Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, west of the Sea of Galilee.
In the Hebrew Bi ...