Kanah

From BibleEncyclopedia.Net

Reedy; brook of reeds.

(1.) A stream forming the boundary between Ephraim and Manasseh, from the Mediterranean eastward to Tappuah (Jos_16:8). It has been identified with the sedgy streams that constitute the Wady Talaik, which enters the sea between Joppa and Caesarea. Others identify it with the river 'Aujeh.

(2.) A town in the north of Asher (Jos_19:28). It has been identified with 'Ain-Kana, a village on the brow of a valley some 7 miles south-east of Tyre. About a mile north of this place are many colossal ruins strewn about. And in the side of a neighbouring ravine are figures of men, women, and children cut in the face of the rock. These are supposed to be of Phoenician origin.

kā´na (קנה, ḳānāh, “reeds”):

(1) The name of a “brook,” i.e. wādy, or “torrent bed,” which formed part of the boundary between Ephraim and Manasseh (Jos_16:8; Jos_17:9). The border of Ephraim went out westward from Tappuah to the brook Kanah, ending at the sea; the border of Manasseh from Tappuah, which belonged to Ephraim, “went down unto the brook of Kanah, southward of the brook.” There seems no good reason to doubt the identification of “the brook Kanah” with the modern Wādy Kanah. The transition from the heavy ḳ to the lighter k is easy, so the phonetic difficulty is not serious. The stream rises in the Southwest of Shechem, flows through Wādy Ishkar, and, joining the ‛Aujeh, reaches the sea not far to the North of Jaffa. Guerin, influenced, apparently, by the masses of reeds of various kinds which fill the river, argues in favor of Nahr el-Fāliḳ, to the North of Arsūf. He identifies it with Nahr el-Kaṣab, “river of reeds,” mentioned by Beha ed-Din, the Moslem historian. But this last must be identified with Nahr el-Mafjir, 13 miles farther North, too far North for “the brook Kanah.”

(2) A town on the northern boundary of Asher (Jos_19:28), probably identical with the village of Ḳana, about 7 miles Southeast of Tyre (SWP, I, 51, 64, Sh I).