Zanoah
Zanoah is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Khirbet Zanu. It appears across 3 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Zanoah in the Shephelah, identified with Khirbet Zanu near the Elah Valley, is attested in several Old Testament passages as a settlement within the tribal allotment of Judah. It appears in Joshua 15:34 among the lowland cities assigned to the tribe, establishing its place in the post-conquest settlement of the land. Its most significant New Testament-era reference comes in Nehemiah 3:13, where the men of Zanoah are credited with repairing the Valley Gate of Jerusalem and a substantial section of Jerusalem's wall following the return from Babylonian exile. This contribution speaks to the settlement's vitality and loyalty to the restoration community under Nehemiah in the fifth century BC. Zanoah is also listed in Nehemiah 11:30 as one of the villages resettled by Judahites after the exile, indicating that the town was repopulated as part of the deliberate effort to reconstitute the population of the tribal heartland of Judah. The place thus appears at two key moments in Israel's history: the initial inheritance of the land under Joshua and the reconstitution of that inheritance under the postexilic leaders Ezra and Nehemiah.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Khirbet Zanu, the traditional identification for this Zanoah, lies in the western Shephelah foothills near the Sorek Valley, approximately 3 kilometers south of modern Beit Shemesh. Surface surveys have identified Iron Age pottery at the site, consistent with occupation during the periods reflected in the Joshua and Nehemiah texts. The site sits in an agriculturally productive area that would have supported a farming community throughout the Iron Age and Persian periods. No major excavation has been undertaken at Khirbet Zanu, but the ceramic evidence and geographical positioning align well with the biblical descriptions of Zanoah as a Judahite lowland settlement.
Verse Appearances (3)
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]