Sharon (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. (ih^n [with art.], prob. for fii;»-n 'till' h'vel,' 'the plain,' from le' to be level; LX^ in 1 Ch 27»», Ca 2' rb ntSiov, but in Is 33" 35' 65'» 6 dpvfids [see below]) the name applied in Scripture to that part of the Maritime Plain which stretches from .Juppa to Mt. Carmel (55 miles). It is of an undulating cliaracter, none of its hills exceeding 250-3U0 feet in height. The following streams cross it in their course to the Mediterranean : Aahr • Marti limply detaches '« from W(A and Joins It to Sharezer : ' the family of El-Sharezir ' (.s'A", 1S92, p. 732). O. A. Smith adopts Kl.Nharezer, but supposes 'J" 'to b« wanting afUr btlh : ' to the temple ol i" ' (Tmtve Propluti). es-ZerhA (the Crocodile River), Nahr Mcfjlr (the Dead River of the Crusaders), Nahr Iskanderfineh (their Salt River), Nahr el-Fillik (their Rochetaille). The plain proper, between the Crocodile River and Joppa, varies in breadth from 8 to 12 miles. The LXX, as above noted, reproduces j'nj'n in three passages by 6 Jpu/iis, a term which is applied to Sharon also by Josephus {BJ I. xiii. 2 ; in Ant. XIV. xiii. 3, plur. ol 5pvfiol) and Strabo (xvi. : Spvfi.6s ^^aj Tis). This designation is very appropriate to a district which has still a large oak wood at its northern extremity, and which, even so late as Crusading times, would have appeared from the top of Mt. Ebal as a vast forest of oaks from coast to mountain {IIGffL^ 122). The Crusaders called it the Forest of Assur (Vinsauf, Itin. Ricardi, iv. 16) ; it is the enchanted forest of Tasso (Gerus. Liberata, ii and xiii) ; it was called by Napoleon the Forest of Miksi (from the modern village of Miksieh). The southern half of the plain is, and must always have been, far more cultivated than its northern portion. Throughout its whole extent it is gay with myriads of brightly coloured Uowers. The "beauty and the fertility of Sharon ^ive point to Is 35', where the 'glory of Lebanon is coupled with the ' excellency (iin ' splendour ' [see Driver, Daniel, p. 33]) of Carmel and Sharon,' the special allusion perhaps being to the magnificence of its oak forests. We have the opposite picture in Is 33", where ' Lebanon is ashamed and withereth away, Sharon is like the (waste) Arahah, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.' Again, in Is 65'" the description of the re.stonition of Lsrael contains this feature : ' Sharon shall be a pasturage for flocks.' In 1 Ch 27^ we read of Shitrai the Sharonite (')nyn, 4 2a/)wy(e)lT?)s), who was over king David's Hocks that fed in Sharon. The excellence of the pasturage, the superiority of the cattle and the wine of Sharon, are celebrated by Jerome (Comm. on Is 33 and 65) and the Talmud (Bab. Mcnahuth 87a, Shahbath 70(i). Its pottery and the bricks used for building are repeatedly referred to in the Mishna as of very inferior quality, the instability of the houses in Sharon being proverbial (see references in Neubauer, Geog. da Talm. 48 f. ). Neubauer appears to be right (against Graetz, Gesch. d. Ju<it-n% iii. IS'2) iu cotitcnding that it is the inhabitants of the maritime Sharon and not of the Galilasan 5arofias [see l)elow], on whose bt-balf a special petition is said to have been intro- duced into the high priest's prayer for the people on the Day of Atonement. This petition ran: 'May God watch over the inhabitanta of Sharon, that tiiey be not buried iu the ruins of their houaes.' The Shulammite compares herself to the ' rose [an unfortunate rendering; njivsn is the tchite narcissus, see Cheyne on Is 35' and cf. art. Rose above] of Sharon' and the 'lily [[nob. some flower of a red colour] of the (Jordan) valleys' (Q'poy), Ca2'. There is some doubt as to the identity of the Sharon of Jos 12" [where read pi}'^ pji; iVj 'king of Aphelf in Sharon'; see Lassuakon]. It has been proposed (e.g. by Dillm. ad loc.) to find here the Saronas which Eusebius (Onomast. 296. 6) says was the name given to the region between ^U. Tabor and Tiberias — a statement confirmed by the name San'ma still attaching to a ruin on this plateau [PEF Mem. vol. i. sheet vi.). This pro- positi appears, however, to be unnecessary, especi- ally in view of the evidence (see 0. A. Smith, IldllL 300, 401 f., and s.v. ' Aphek' in Em-i/i: liibl.) in favour of the existence of an ApheV in the maritime Sljaion (cf. W. R. Smith, OTJC 273, 435, audi.!). ' XyXwV' \n Enrijc. liibl. ; H. P. Smith, Saiiiud, 31. Buhl, GAP 212 f., 218, leaves it un- * It Is not at all likely that the title i ipvfxii Is due to any connexion, real or supposed, between the Ueb. thdrun and the Qr. r»pt,„t, a verv rare term for an oak (Pliny, UH iv. 6, quoted by Beland, Pat. 100). •478 SHARONITK SHAVSHA decidcii whether it is the maritime or the Galiliean Sharon tlirit is meant in Jos 12"). The only NT reference to Sharon is Ac 9" (4 ^apiiv, whence AV Saron), in connexion with St. Peter's stay at Lvdda. For further details regard- ini; Sharon see Buhl, GAP 103 ff. ; and G. A. Smith, HGHL ' 147 fi'., where a full account is fjiven of its strategic importance and the part it played in post- biblical history. 2. (in? [without art.] ; B Ttpii/j., A lapuv) 1 Ch 5". This Sharon (|| Gilead and Bashan) is prob- ably the same as the Mishur (also from root iw-), or elevated plateau between the Arnon and tlie Jabbok (Dt 3'» 4« Jos 139. is- 17.21 20", .Jer 488- =', 2 Ch 26'"). See vol. ilL p. 30^^ footnote, and p. 893'', s. 5. J. A. Selbie.