Tappuah
Tappuah is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Samaria in modern-day Israel. Known today as Tell Abu Zarad. It appears across 3 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Tappuah in Samaria was a prominent city in the central hill country within the territory of Ephraim, with its surrounding region extending into Manasseh. It appears in Joshua 16:8 and 17:8 in the tribal boundary descriptions, where the territory of Manasseh included the land of Tappuah even though the city itself belonged to Ephraim, a territorial peculiarity suggesting contested or shared jurisdiction. More dramatically, Tappuah appears in 2 Kings 15:16, where Menahem, who had seized the throne of Israel through violent usurpation, attacked Tiphsah (possibly the same as Tappuah in some textual traditions, or alternatively a distinct city) and committed atrocities against its inhabitants who refused to submit to him. This episode illustrates the social chaos and brutality that characterized the final decades of the northern kingdom before its fall to Assyria in 722 BC. Tappuah's position in the heart of the Ephraimite highlands made it significant for controlling the interior of the northern kingdom, and its boundary disputes between Ephraim and Manasseh reflect the complex tribal negotiations of the settlement period.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The Samaritan Tappuah is generally identified with Tell Abu Zarad, located in the central hill country of the West Bank approximately eight kilometers south of Nablus (ancient Shechem). The site preserves a substantial tell formation indicating prolonged occupation. Surface surveys and limited excavations have yielded Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery, confirming settlement during the periods relevant to the Joshua boundary texts and the later monarchy. The site's position in the fertile highland zone, with access to agricultural land and regional road networks, explains its administrative importance in the tribal geography of Ephraim and Manasseh. Full systematic excavation of Tell Abu Zarad has not been conducted, leaving many questions about the site's layout and occupation history unresolved.
Verse Appearances (3)
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]