Zanoah

Zanoah connects a modern agricultural community near Beth-Shemesh with a name appearing in biblical accounts of Judah’s towns.[1] The name also appears in accounts of Jerusalem’s reconstruction and Judahite settlement.[2][4] The Hebrew name is זָנוֹחַ, and biblical geographical references distinguish a Lowland Zanoah from another town of the same name in the hill country.[1]

The modern moshav lies on Highway 3855, which runs between Beit Shemesh and Highway 375.[5] Nearby Nahal Zanoah is one of the streams in the valley between the Judean Hills and the Shephelah, and part of its course runs along the edge of Ramat Beit Shemesh.[5][6] Administratively, the moshav is part of the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council and has locality code 816.[3]

Joshua 15 includes Zanoah in two regional lists of towns assigned to Judah: the Lowland and the hill country.[7] In the Lowland list it appears near Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah, En-gannim, Tappuah, and Enam; the hill-country occurrence is grouped with Jezreel and Jokdeam.[7] The broader geographical setting of the second town includes Maon, Carmel, Ziph, and Juttah.[1]

Nehemiah 3:13 names Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah as the builders who repaired Jerusalem’s Valley Gate, rebuilt it, and installed its doors, locks, and bars.[2] Their work also extended along a thousand cubits of wall to the Dung Gate.[2] This contribution has been interpreted as suggesting that the Lowland town may have been a secondary district center, possibly within the district of Keilah.[1]

Zanoah also appears in Nehemiah 11:25–30 among the villages and settlements inhabited by Judahites.[4] It is named alongside Adullam and their villages, within a settlement list extending from Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom.[4] Other places in the surrounding list include Zorah, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Azekah.[8]

In I Chronicles 4:18, Jekuthiel is described as the “father of Zanoah.”[9] The same verse names Jered as father of Gedor and Heber as father of Soco, and connects these figures with Bithiah, Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Mered married.[9]

In the time of Eusebius, Zanoah was a village in the territory of Eleutheropolis, or Bet Guvrin, on the route to Ailia, or Jerusalem.[1] The Lowland site is identified with Khirbat Zanūʿ, between Beth-Shemesh and the Valley of Elah, where pottery from the Late Bronze and Iron II periods and remains from later periods were found.[1]

The Nahal Zanoah area also figures in the account of the fighters’ January 1948 journey to Gush Etzion during the War of Independence.[6] Thirty-eight fighters traveled from the Sorek stream toward Nahal Zanoah.[6] Near the location of the entrance to the later moshav, Israel Gafni, who had injured his ankle, separated from the group and returned toward Hartuv with Moshe Hazan and Uri Gavish.[6] The remaining 35 climbed the Nahal Zanoah streambed, and the three returnees’ account of the separation was described as the last evidence of the fighters while they were still alive.[6]

The modern agricultural moshav was founded in 1950 south of Beth-Shemesh.[1][10] Its first settlers were Yemenite Jews, mostly new immigrants; they were later replaced by North African Jews, principally from Morocco.[1]

Zanoah had a recorded population of 541 in 2020.[3] Earlier historical figures were 318 in 1969, approximately 340 in the mid-1990s, and 417 in the government’s 2008 rural-localities dataset.[1][10] The first three figures are historical counts tied to their reporting periods rather than current population data.[1][10] The 2020 figure is likewise the count for that year.[3]

The modern Zanoah was established as an agricultural moshav.[1] Agricultural land, structures, and livelihoods remained central to residents’ concerns about proposed neighboring development in 2025.[11]

The name also appears in Jewish religious literature beyond the biblical town lists: the Mishnah praises the fine flour of Zanua, in corrected manuscripts of Menahot 8:1, as unsurpassed in quality.[1] In Megillah 13a, the Babylonian Talmud interprets the names in I Chronicles 4:18 as names for Moses rather than as a straightforward list of separate individuals.[12] Within that interpretation, “Zanoah” refers to Moses because he “caused the iniquities of the Jewish people to be disregarded.”[12]

Khirbat Zanūʿ, between Beth-Shemesh and the Valley of Elah, is the proposed site of the Lowland Zanoah.[1] An 1889 geographical identification likewise placed that town at Kh. Zanûʾa, describing ruins two and a half miles south of Beth Shemesh.[13]

The highland town is placed probably southeast of Hebron on the basis of its association with Maon, Carmel, Ziph, and Juttah, although its exact site is unknown.[1] Earlier identifications differed: the 1889 gazetteer associated it with Kh. Zanûta south of Yutta, while a commentary on Chronicles placed the Zanoah associated with Jekuthiel southwest of Hebron and distinguished it from the town near Beth-shemesh.[13][14]

In the modern landscape, the old entrance to Moshav Zanoah lies on an approach to the Cave of the Twins.[5] Nahal Zanoah and Highway 3855 also feature in descriptions of the Lamed-Heh route associated with the 35 fighters’ journey.[6]

In September 2025, a proposed Ministry of Construction and Housing plan for eastern Beit Shemesh covered about 648 dunams and included 2,653 housing units, commercial and employment areas, and public buildings.[11] Situated between existing city neighborhoods, the cemetery, Moshav Zanoah, and Highway 10, it crossed the jurisdictions of Beit Shemesh and Mateh Yehuda Regional Council.[11] Its stated aim was to extend the city’s built-up continuity to Route 3855 and strengthen its eastern entrance.[11]

More than 80 objections were filed on behalf of residents, rights-holders, local authorities, and environmental organizations.[11] Zanoah residents and other opponents argued that the development would harm the moshav, farmland, and forest; residents specifically raised concerns about traffic on the moshav’s entrance road and damage to agricultural structures and livelihoods.[11] These were objections to the proposal, rather than established findings about its effects.[11]