Zeredah
Zeredah is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Samaria in modern-day Israel. Known today as Deir Ghassaneh. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Zeredah appears in the Old Testament as a city of significance in the hill country of Ephraim, most notably as the hometown of Jeroboam son of Nebat (1 Kings 11:26). Jeroboam would go on to become the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel following the division of the monarchy after Solomon's death. His origins in Zeredah thus connect this otherwise obscure settlement to one of the most consequential political and religious ruptures in Israelite history. The city's association with Jeroboam, who led Israel into the "sin of Jeroboam" by establishing golden calves at Bethel and Dan, gives it a sobering role in the biblical narrative. Zeredah is also possibly linked to the region where copper and bronze casting was performed for Solomon's temple (2 Chronicles 4:17), placing it within the industrial and cultic infrastructure of the united monarchy. Though mentioned briefly, the city stands at the intersection of royal ambition, prophetic tension, and Israel's long struggle with faithfulness to God.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The site identified as the Zeredah of Jeroboam's birth is tentatively located at Deir Ghassaneh, a village in the Samarian highlands northwest of Jerusalem. This identification is based largely on phonetic and geographic considerations rather than confirmed excavation. The site has not been subjected to systematic archaeological investigation. The broader Samarian hill country in which it lies has yielded Iron Age remains consistent with Israelite settlement patterns of the 10th and 9th centuries BC, the period associated with Jeroboam I. Without dedicated fieldwork at Deir Ghassaneh specifically, the biblical identification remains plausible but unconfirmed.
Verse Appearances (1)
1Kgs
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]