Dothain

DOTHAIN. - A city north of Shechem (Gen. 37:12-17) and Samaria (II Kings 6:13), on a plain facing Esdrelon (Judg. 4:6; 7:3) and near the pass that led to the country of Judah. There Joseph, son of Jacob, was thrown into a cistern by his brothers and then sold to the Ishmaelite merchants; there the army of Ben-hadad, struck with blindness at the prayer of Elisha, was led by the prophet into the center of Samaria.

Eusebius (Onom., 76, 13) locates the city 12 miles north of Sebaste (Samaria). It seems that it no longer existed in the 13th century, because pilgrims sought its site near the Lake of Tiberias, but in 1855 it was identified in the landscape 18 km north of Sebaste on the road toward Carmel, completely isolated from the pleasant valley around it and 25-30 m high, still bearing the name Tell Dō-jān. The surroundings of the hill, crowned with sacred trees and wadis, are strewn with ancient cisterns, and the fertility of the soil, thanks to two abundant springs, still today offers the best pastures. The Tell lies precisely at km. 100 on the paved Jerusalem-Nazareth road.

Donato Baldi