Where was the biblical city of Janoah located?

Janoah was an ancient city in the region of Samaria, within the territory of the tribe of Naphtali. Its ruins are identified with the modern archaeological site of Khirbet Yanun, located in the northern West Bank of present-day Israel (2 Kings 15:29).

What happened at Janoah in the Bible?

The Bible records that Janoah was one of the cities captured by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III during his invasion of the northern kingdom of Israel. This conquest led to the exile of the Israelite population from the region (2 Kings 15:29).

Why is Janoah significant in biblical history?

Janoah's capture marks a key event in the Assyrian conquest that led to the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel. Its mention provides historical and geographical context for understanding the scope of this invasion and the subsequent exile of the tribes (2 Kings 15:29).

Janoah

cityOld TestamentSamaria2 verses

Today Khirbet YanunCountry IsraelCoordinates 32.158, 35.361

Janoah is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Samaria in modern-day Israel. Known today as Khirbet Yanun. It appears across 2 verses in Scripture.

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Archaeological Data

Occupation Phases

Early Bronze Age3800 BCE – 2500 BCE

Early Bronze Age IV/Middle Bronze Age I/Int. Bronze2500 BCE – 2000 BCE

Middle Bronze Age2000 BCE – 1550 BCE

Iron Age I-II1150 BCE – 539 BCE

Iron Age I1150 BCE – 980 BCE

Iron Age IIa-b980 BCE – 720 BCE

Iron Age IIa980 BCE – 830 BCE

Iron Age II980 BCE – 539 BCE

Iron Age IIb-c830 BCE – 539 BCE

Iron Age IIc720 BCE – 539 BCE

Iron Age III (Persian)539 BCE – 333 BCE

Hellenistic333 BCE – 63 BCE

Roman63 BCE – 324 CE

Late Roman70 CE – 324 CE

Late Roman-Byzantine70 CE – 638 CE

Byzantine324 CE – 638 CE

UnitoAssyrianGovernance, Villages to Empires Dataset (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732

Biblical History

This southern Janoah (also spelled Janohah) is mentioned in Joshua 16:6-7 as a landmark on the eastern boundary of the tribal territory of Ephraim. The border description records that it went from Tappuah eastward to the brook Kanah, passed through Janoah, and descended from there to Ataroth and Naarah before reaching Jericho and the Jordan. This placement situates Janoah in the hill country east of Shechem, within the heartland of Ephraimite territory. The tribe of Ephraim, descended from Joseph's younger son whom Jacob blessed with the greater blessing (Genesis 48:17-20), received some of the most fertile and strategically important land in central Canaan. Janoah's position along the tribal boundary helped define the extent of Ephraim's inheritance, distinguishing it from the territory of Manasseh to the north. While Janoah is not associated with specific narrative events, the Ephraimite hill country in which it sat became the location of significant biblical events, including Joshua's burial at Timnath-serah (Joshua 24:30) and the establishment of the tabernacle at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1). The region remained a center of Israelite identity throughout the period of the Judges and into the monarchy.

Archaeological & Historical Notes

This southern Janoah is identified with Khirbet Yanun, a site located approximately 10 kilometers southeast of Nablus (ancient Shechem) in the Samarian hill country. The identification is well supported by the preservation of the ancient name in the Arabic toponym and the site's correspondence with the boundary description in Joshua 16. Surface surveys have documented pottery from the Iron Age and later periods, confirming occupation during the Israelite period. The site occupies a position along the natural route descending from the central highlands toward the Jordan Valley, consistent with the boundary line described in Joshua 16:6-7. The surrounding region has been the subject of extensive archaeological survey work, notably by Adam Zertal's Manasseh Hill Country Survey, which documented hundreds of ancient settlement sites. Khirbet Yanun itself has not been systematically excavated, but its topographical setting and name preservation make the identification highly probable.

Verse Appearances (2)

Josh

Josh 16:6 Josh 16:7

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]

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