Janoah
Janoah is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Phoenicia in modern-day Israel. Known today as Yanouh. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
This northern Janoah is mentioned in 2 Kings 15:29 as one of the cities captured by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III during his devastating campaign against the northern kingdom of Israel around 733 BC. The verse records that Tiglath-pileser took Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee along with all the land of Naphtali, and deported their populations to Assyria. This military campaign represented the beginning of the end for the northern kingdom, which would fall completely to Assyria in 722 BC. Janoah's inclusion in this list of major conquered cities indicates it was a settlement of sufficient importance to warrant specific mention in the biblical record. The captured territories were reorganized into Assyrian provinces, effectively ending Israelite sovereignty over the northernmost tribal territories. The deportation of these populations fulfilled prophetic warnings about the consequences of covenant unfaithfulness and set in motion the displacement that would produce the mixed population later known as the Samaritans. Janoah's fall thus marks a somber chapter in the story of Israel's progressive loss of the land promised to their ancestors.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
This northern Janoah is identified with Yanouh (Khirbet Yanuh), located in the Upper Galilee region near the Lebanese border. The site sits in a mountainous area consistent with the territory of Naphtali described in Scripture. Archaeological surveys have documented remains from the Bronze and Iron Ages at the site, including pottery and structural foundations. The broader Upper Galilee region has been extensively surveyed, revealing a pattern of Iron Age settlements that was disrupted by the Assyrian campaigns of the eighth century BC, consistent with the biblical account of Tiglath-pileser's invasion. Assyrian administrative texts and reliefs from Nineveh corroborate the biblical account of military campaigns in this region. The remote location of Yanouh has limited extensive excavation, and the site remains primarily documented through survey rather than systematic dig.
Verse Appearances (1)
2Kgs
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]