Zalmonah
Zalmonah is a location mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Negev in modern-day Israel. Known today as Wadi es Salmaneh. It appears across 2 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Zalmonah is recorded in the Old Testament as one of the wilderness encampments of the Israelites during their long journey from Egypt to Canaan. It appears in Numbers 33:41–42, within the detailed itinerary of Israel's desert wanderings, listed between Mounts Hor and Punon along the route through the Negev and Arabah. This portion of the journey coincides with one of the most troubled episodes in Israel's wilderness experience: following the death of Aaron on Mount Hor, the Israelites again fell into complaining, and God sent venomous serpents among them as judgment (Numbers 21:4–9). The bronze serpent made by Moses at God's command — an act Jesus would later interpret as a foreshadowing of his own crucifixion (John 3:14) — was crafted during this stretch of the journey. Zalmonah's precise role in the narrative is not elaborated, but it represents one step in the long arc of Israel's formation as a people, a period marked by both divine provision and human faithfulness. The location in the Arabah reflects the harsh conditions the Israelites endured as they circled the territory of Edom.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Zalmonah is tentatively identified with Wadi es Salmaneh in the Arabah region of the Negev, south of the Dead Sea. The Arabah is a dramatic desert rift valley running between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, and ancient copper-mining operations at nearby sites like Khirbet en Nahas and Timna confirm human activity in this region during the Iron Age and possibly earlier. The area has been surveyed as part of broader studies of the Exodus route and Arabah archaeology. No site specifically bearing the name Zalmonah has been conclusively identified, and the proposed identification rests primarily on the phonetic similarity between the biblical name and the wadi's modern Arabic designation.
Verse Appearances (2)
Sources: ISBE Encyclopedia · OpenBible Geocoding (CC BY) · Pleiades Gazetteer View all →