Tiphsah
Tiphsah 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 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
This second Tiphsah appears in a far darker context than its Euphrates namesake. In 2 Kings 15:16, the Israelite king Menahem, seizing the throne through assassination, attacked Tiphsah (here likely a Samaritan town) and its surrounding villages with extreme brutality: "He sacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women." This atrocity was evidently a reprisal against those who had refused to open their gates to the new king. The incident is one of the most viscerally disturbing passages in Kings, illustrating the moral collapse of the northern kingdom in its final decades before the Assyrian conquest. The Tiphsah in question is distinct from the Euphrates city and is generally located within Israelite territory, possibly near Tirzah in Samaria. The episode serves the theological purpose of the Deuteronomistic historian, documenting the progressive violence and covenantal unfaithfulness that culminated in the fall of Samaria in 722 BCE. Whether this Tiphsah is Tell Abu Zarad remains debated, but its placement in Samaria fits the narrative context.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Tell Abu Zarad, proposed as the location of the Samaritan Tiphsah, lies in the central hill country south of Shechem. The site has not been extensively excavated, and its identification with the Tiphsah of 2 Kings 15:16 remains tentative. Surface surveys have revealed Iron Age pottery consistent with occupation during the period of the Israelite monarchy. The broader region around Tirzah and Shechem was densely settled during the Iron Age II period, supporting the plausibility of a significant town in this location. Further archaeological work would be required to confirm the identification and reconstruct the site's settlement history.
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]