DOTHAIN. - A city north of Shechem (Gen. 37:12-17) and Samaria (2 Kgs 6:13), in a plain facing Esdraelon (Judg. 4:6; 7:3) and near the pass leading to the land of Judah. There Joseph, son of Jacob, was cast by his brothers into a cistern and then sold to the Ishmaelite merchants; there the army of Ben-hadad, struck blind at Elisha’s prayer, was led by the prophet into the heart of Samaria.
Eusebius (Onom., 76:13) places the city twelve miles north of Sebaste (Samaria). It appears to have ceased to exist by the 13th century, since pilgrims sought its site near the Sea of Tiberias, but in 1855 it was identified in the landscape 18 km north of Sebaste on the road to Carmel, completely isolated from the pleasant surrounding valley and rising 25–30 m, still bearing the name Tell Dô-1ân. The slopes of the mound, crowned with sacred trees and wadis, are dotted with ancient cisterns, and the soil’s fertility, thanks to two abundant springs, still offers the best pastures today. The Tell lies precisely at km 100 on the asphalt road from Jerusalem to Nazareth.