ZARETHAN zăr’ ə thăn (צָרְתָֽן; also ZARETAN zăr’ a tăn KJV Josh 3:16, ZARTANAH, zär’ thăn [1 Kings 7:46]).

A city on the E side of the Jordan Valley in the neighborhood of Adam (q.v.) in the vicinity of which the Jordan was dammed in the days of Joshua (Josh 3:16). The waters were apparently backed up from Adam (modern Tell ed-Damiyeh) as far N as Zarethan (prob. Tell es Sa’idiyeh). In Solomon’s time the town was in the fourth administrative district of Solomon near to Bethshan (q.v.) “below Jezreel” (1 Kings 4:12). It was in this area that Hiram the Phoen. craftsman cast bronze implements for the Temple “in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan” (1 Kings 7:46). In the parallel passage (2 Chron 4:17) an alternative name Zeredah appears, unless this is a scribal error. Excavations at the site of Tell es Sa’idiyeh have produced numerous copper objects belonging to the 13th-12th centuries b.c., suggesting that the town was a bronze working center. The site is a prominent one overlooking Wadi Kufrinjeh. It is the center of a large agricultural area and has had a long history dating back to the Chalcolithic period.

Bibliography J. B. Pritchard, “The First Excavations at Tell es-Sa’idiyeh,” BA, XXVIII (1965), 16, 17; F. M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine, II (1938), 448.