Kanah
Kanah is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Phoenicia in modern-day Israel. Known today as Qana. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Kanah (the city) appears in Joshua 19:28, listed among the towns within the tribal allotment of Asher in the northern reaches of the Promised Land. The territory of Asher extended along the Phoenician coast from Carmel northward toward Sidon, and Kanah was situated in the inland portion of this allotment near the border with the territory of Tyre. The passage describes the boundary of Asher as extending to Greater Sidon, then turning toward Ramah and on to the fortified city of Tyre, with Kanah mentioned in this northern border region. Asher's territory was blessed with fertile land and proximity to the prosperous Phoenician cities, fulfilling Jacob's blessing that Asher's food would be rich and he would yield royal delicacies (Genesis 49:20). However, Judges 1:31-32 records that Asher failed to drive out the inhabitants of several cities in this region, living instead among the Canaanites. This incomplete conquest meant that cities like Kanah remained in a zone of mixed Israelite and Phoenician habitation, reflecting the broader challenge of faithfully possessing the entire land God had given.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Kanah is identified with Qana (also Khirbet Qana), a site in southern Lebanon approximately ten kilometers southeast of Tyre. This location fits the description of a city in the northern portion of Asher's territory near the Phoenician border. The site should not be confused with the New Testament Cana of Galilee (Khirbet Qana near Nazareth), which is a different location entirely. The identification rests on the preservation of the ancient toponym and the geographical fit within the Asher boundary description of Joshua 19. The region of southern Lebanon preserves extensive archaeological remains from the Bronze and Iron Ages, reflecting the area's importance as a zone of interaction between Israelite, Phoenician, and Aramean cultures. Limited survey work has been conducted at the site itself, as the region's modern political complexities have constrained archaeological investigation.
Verse Appearances (1)
Josh
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]