SARNON (Hebr. haš-Šarōn, Gr. ὁ Σαράν, Lat. Saronas). — 1. Biblical name of the stretch of the Palestinian plain that extends along the coast from Carmel to Joppa, renowned for its fertility (Is. 35:2), for the abundance of its pastures (Is. 65:10; 1 Chron. 27:29), and for its meadows of narcissi and anemones (Cant. 2:1).
In antiquity, the alluvial zone between Carmel and Caesarea rivaled, in its dense thickets and brush, the glory of Lebanon and Carmel (Is. 35:2), and for this reason S. is rendered in Greek as ὁ βρυμός (ibid., 65:10), a term also adopted by Flavius Josephus (Bell. Jud., I, 13, 2; Antiq. Jud., XIV, 13, 1) and Strabo (XVI, 2, 27). The fertile fields, watered by numerous streams that extend from the Nahr ez-Zerga to the Nahr el-'Augā', where the plain widens inland to 20 km., are designated as S., translated as ὁ πέδιος (Cant. 2:1). Eusebius (Onom., 163, 2) specifies that “from Caesarea Palestina as far as the town of Joppa, all the land that can be seen is called Saronas.” After a long abandonment during which the plain had become marshy, today, in the State of Israel, it has regained its proverbial magnificence. From Tel Aviv to Haifa, numerous agricultural villages have arisen, and on the reclaimed land thrive luxuriant citrus groves, olive groves, vineyards, vegetable gardens, and the rational cultivation of narcissi and anemones.
2. A Canaanite city, conquered by Thutmosis III (srn. n. 25), is mentioned in the el-'Amārnah letters (šarūna, 241, 4); its geographical location is uncertain, whether it corresponds to a city of the coastal plain conquered by Joshua (Josh. 12:18), or to a locality in Galilee between Tabor and the Lake of Tiberias, which preserves the name Hürbet Sarūnah, southwest of el-'Ahmah, and in whose vicinity the Jewish colony of Saronas has been reestablished.
3. A pastoral region in Transjordan (1 Chron. 5:16), distinct from Gilead and Bashan, mentioned in the Moabite Stone (line 12), probably synonymous with miḥôr (plain).