Bible Dictionary

Zaanaim

Wanderings; the unloading of tents, so called probably from the fact of nomads in tents encamping amid the cities and villages of that region, a place in the north-west of Lake Merom, near Kedesh, in…

Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)

Wanderings; the unloading of tents, so called probably from the fact of nomads in tents encamping amid the cities and villages of that region, a place in the north-west of Lake Merom, near Kedesh, in Naphtali. , ’as far as the oak’] of Zaanaim” (Judg. 4:11). It has been, however, suggested by some that, following the LXX.

and the Talmud, the letter b, which in Hebrew means “in,” should be taken as a part of the word following, and the phrase would then be “unto the oak of Bitzanaim,” a place which has been identified with the ruins of Bessum, about half-way between Tiberias and Mount Tabor.

Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)

(removings), The plain of, or more accurately, “the oak by Zaanaim,” a tree-probably a sacred tree—mentioned as marking the spot near which Heber the Kenite was encamped when Sisera took refuge in his tent. e. Kedesh-naphtali, the name of which still lingers on the high ground north of Safed and two or three miles west of the lake of el-Huleh (waters of Merom). This whole region abounds in oaks.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary

ZAANA'IM (removals), THE PLAIN OF, more accurately "the oak of," where Heber the Kenite pitched his tent. Jud 4:11. This has been identified with a plain some 2 or 8 miles north-west of the Waters of Merom (Lake Huleh), in the line of the hills which form the western boundary of the Jordan valley. The plain is about 2 miles long and 1 mile wide, and completely surrounded by hills. " In the middle of the western side of this plain is the site of Kedesh-naphtali, or Kedesh. Conder says that Kedesh-naphtali is 30 miles from Tabor, over a difficult country.

He suggests another Kedesh, and the identification of Zaanaim with Bessum, east of Tabor. See Zaananxim.